Newsrack Thief Who Starred in Video Nabbed

By: Joe Strupp Alabama's Great Decatur Daily Newsrack Caper may be coming to an end.

The newspaper -- which published front-page surveillance images yesterday of a man carting off one of its newsracks -- today reported the arrest of the man, who is suspected of stealing about a dozen newspaper boxes.

Decatur police charged Jimmy John Crader, 24, with one count of third-degree theft after receiving a tip from someone who saw the published images, the paper reported. Officers made the arrest at Crader's home Wednesday afternoon, just hours after the video images were printed in the Daily. He was released from Decatur City Jail later in the afternoon on $500 bond.

The charge is in connection with one stolen newspaper rack, but police said further charges are pending, related to a rash of recent rack thefts and possibly several soda vending machines.

The video images the paper published had come from an outdoor surveillance video of a local grocery store, which happened to catch the news box bandit as he made off with a $400 newsrack last Sunday. Editors said the grocery store contacted them after discovering the scofflaw's actions had been recorded.

Each stolen newsrack has later been found in an empty lot, along with a number of other racks and at least one vending machine, newspaper officials said. Circulation director Darren Mack has estimated that the thief could not have gotten more than about $100 for his efforts, but he cost the paper about $5,000 because of the value of each newsrack.