LAWRENCEVILLE, Ill.—The man arrested on a Pennsylvania burglary warrant after a Monday traffic incident in Lawrenceville has admitted that what he’s done was pretty stupid if it was caught on YouTube.
And that’s exactly what’s happened: Philadelphia police posted a home surveillance system video to YouTube that purportedly shows the alleged burglar, Renault Cross, 27, accessing a nice home in a neighborhood in that major town and helping himself to whatever items of value (including some booze) he could find on June 21, 2014:
On Monday afternoon, Cross was in the company of his girlfriend, Demya Lacole Smith, also 27, as well as a carload of four other people yesterday when he became the subject of a traffic stop following a report of a driver almost running local woman Cara Sanderson off the road near Casey’s in Lawrenceville.
Why the carload was here in southern Illinois from Philadelphia—especially given that both Cross and Smith are from New Jersey–remains one of those weird little twists that “happens only in southern Illinois.”
As it turns out, Smith has a brother who lives in Sumner—and Cross has told authorities that he believed Lawrence County would be THE place to come and effectively cool his heels for awhile after committing burglaries in his most recent home state.
A car fitting the description of the one Pennsylvania authorities were seeking had been reported in Richland County the day before, and Richland had sent up the alert to Lawrence, as it’s a neighboring county to the east.
Still, when Lawrenceville Police Chief Jim White responded to the car with Pennsylvania plates, which was stopped at Casey’s on the eastern side of town, he admitted he was surprised to find six occupants in a vehicle that not only fit the description of the one Pennsylvania authorities were searching for, but had “just almost run someone off the road.” However, he wasn’t intimidated: instead, he told each occupant that for everybody’s safety, he was going to have to handcuff each one and separate them for questioning, and when he called for backup and started handling things, everyone complied nicely.
Upon questioning Cross, that’s when he learned about the girlfriend’s brother in Sumner.
And when he went to Sumner, Smith’s brother also complied nicely, allowing police to search his home and advising that he had no idea the stuff Cross had brought in—Rolexes, PlayStation3, and other items—were stolen loot.
Thus far, there are a couple of locations that are fighting for extradition of Cross…this after he was advised of the YouTube video and recognized himself in it, stating that it was a pretty stupid move if he were caught and his face broadcast on the worldwide web for all to see.
Cross is currently being held in Lawrence County; his girlfriend was being held there as well as of Tuesday, but there may have been plans to move her to Crawford County.
There are bound to be updates…so watch the pages of the next print edition, July-August 2014, on stands July 23, for that information as this situation develops.