The Commerce Police Department’s (relatively) new auto tag reader resulted in the recovery last week of a vehicle reported stolen in Athens-Clarke.
A Commerce officer was on patrol on U.S. 441 southbound when the tag reader alerted him that a vehicle was stolen. When the officer tried to pull the vehicle over, it slowed down, but continued slowly for a half mile before coming to a stop at Homer Road, according to the arrest report. As it came to a stop, the officer noted the occupants of the vehicle moving around and observed a small child who appeared to be standing up in the front seat.
With the support of other officers, the arresting officer had the occupants exit the vehicle. They were identified as Diama Lumpkin, 55, 145 Brickyard Road, Commerce, who was the driver, and Rhonda Kay Brooks, 34, 227 Evangelical Church Road, Danielsville, and her two children, ages 4 and 1.
Police got permission to search Brooks’ purse, in which they allegedly found a single pill identified as morphine, and a single “joint” of marijuana. Upon questioning, Brooks also admitted to having a bottle in her pants, which she retrieved and inside which police found a quantity of marijuana, another morphine pill and two Lortab. The report indicated that Brooks told police that the marijuana joint and the morphine belonged to Lumpkin.
Police also noted that there were no child safety seats in the vehicle.
According to the report, Lumpkin said the vehicle had been loaned to her by a friend and she’d had it about a month.
Police charged Lumpkin with theft by receiving a motor vehicle and with violation of the child safety restraint law. They charged Brooks with misdemeanor possession of marijuana, possession of a Schedule 2 narcotic, possession of a Schedule 3 narcotic and arrested her on an unspecified warrant.
For a report on all of the arrests made during the past week by Commerce police, see the May 1 edition of The Commerce News.
