Paint leads investigators to burglars

Three men have been arrested and charged with burglary and other crimes after deputies with the Stephens County Sheriff’s Office after found an abandoned vehicle stuck in the mud in front of a house under construction.

According to Stephens County Sheriff Randy Shirley, his deputies were dispatched in response to a suspicious vehicle on Nub Garland Road, November 2.

After deputies found the abandoned vehicle they discovered that the house where the vehicle had been found, had been burglarized the previous night.

Shirley says that while deputies were out with the vehicle, another vehicle pulled up, with three males inside, to retrieve the stuck vehicle.

Deputies detained the suspects and discovered that one of the suspects, identified as Andrew Fitzgerald, was the owner of the stuck vehicle.

Shirley said that Fitzgerald initially lied to the deputies about how his vehicle had gotten stuck, but when a deputy walked around the house and discovered several paint cans that matched a paint can that was visible in Fitzgerald’s vehicle.

Fitzgerald then confessed to taking the can from the residence.

All three suspects, Fitzgerald, Mark Cox, and Robert Boggs, were then arrested for burglary and transported to the Stephens County Jail. Cox also had an active warrant for failure to register as a sex offender.

Shirley said that later that day, investigators interviewed the three suspects at the jail, and were able to get the suspects to confess and tell the investigators where the stolen items were located from the burglary.

The suspects’ statements led investigators to the residence of both Boggs and Fitzgerald, where they obtained a search warrant.

During the search, all of the reported stolen items were located in the storage shed belonging to Boggs. Investigators also located items that had been stolen from another Toccoa residence.

Fitzgerald, 25, of Toccoa was charged with failure to maintain insurance, driving while license suspended, and two counts of burglary in the 1^st degree.

Boggs, 38, of Toccoa was charged with two counts of burglary in the first degree.

Cox, 41, of Royston, was arrested and charged with failure to register as a sex offender and burglary in the first degree.