Louisiana Tech Police arrested a Simsboro man for theft last Saturday afternoon after he allegedly stole a television from a campus building.
About 3:30 p.m. Saturday afternoon, a witness reported seeing a man in a light-colored shirt and red shorts carrying a television out of Davison Hall. The caller said the man walked out of the building with the TV in his hands and hid it behind the In and Out Donuts building on West California Avenue.
Tech officers saw a man matching the description at the Tech Mart convenience store across California Avenue. Torranzee Melton, 39, was taken into custody.
Upon questioning, Melton said he found the TV in a trash dumpster at another location. The duty dispatcher at Tech PD reviewed surveillance video that showed Melton walking into Davison Hall and then out of the building with a large object in his hands.
Melton denied entering the building. A flat screen TV was recovered from behind the donut shop. Located beside the TV was a woman’s purse containing several needles and smoking pipes commonly used for consuming methamphetamine or cocaine. Milton denied knowledge of the purse, saying it was already there before he placed the TV next to it.
Melton was booked at the Lincoln Parish Detention Center for theft and possession of drug paraphernalia.
This information has been provided by a law enforcement agency as public information. Persons named or shown in photographs or video as suspects in a criminal investigation, or arrested and charged with a crime, have not been convicted of any criminal offense and are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
