ARKANSAS COUNTY, Ark. — A rural Arkansas County’s sheriff’s office recovered nearly two dozen stolen guns in less than a week. We’ve learned that doesn’t include the more than $100,000 of other stolen property recovered in less than two months.
Our reporter Price McKeon got an exclusive look at the evidence and sat down with Arkansas County Sheriff Todd Wright to talk about the crimes.
We met Sheriff Wright at his DeWitt office on Thursday.
We also met Bobby Webb who owns a local business in Dewitt on Thursday.
“I had stolen out of here,” Bobby Webb said he knows what it’s like to have a gun stolen.
He owns Webb’s Sporting Goods store on Whitehead Drive in Dewitt.
Webb said, “ATF called me and said, ‘Mr. Webb -we have found one of your guns.'”
After more than two years, Webb knows what it’s like to get it back.
“They (ATF) sent it back to me within the last week,” he said.
But we learned before he sold guns the local business owner carried one for his former line of work.
“Mainly worked narcotics my whole career. I was the guy with the earring and long hair,” he said.
So this former deputy also knows what it takes for his local sheriff deputies to recover nearly 2 dozen stolen guns in less than a week.
He said, “They work their tail off. They work themselves to death.”
We sat down with Sheriff Wright at his office to learn more about the cases.
“We’d get some here (then) some there. We dug some up out of the ground yesterday (Wednesday),” Sheriff Wright described where they recovered 22 guns.
The Arkansas County Sheriff said his investigators so far have arrested 3 people who they believe last Sunday stole and cut open a large safe from a hunting camp and took 22 guns and jewelry from it.
“It may not be today but your day’s coming. I mean we’re not giving up,” Wright said.
But before this week’s work, the sheriff said his deputies had already recovered more than $100,000 worth of stolen property in the last month and a half.
Sheriff Wright said, “It takes teamwork. When something happens we all come out whether we’re on the clock or not.”
He exclusively showed us evidence that’s helped put nearly half a dozen people accused of stealing behind bars since the end of March.
“He’s involved in 7 burglaries,” the sheriff said as he pointed at a list of property and suspects arrested for the crimes.
He explained the cases don’t appear to be connected.
He added, “It’s multiple counties that some of these guys are hitting.”
The sheriff said he credits hard work from his staff, tips from the community and luck for all the recent success solving crimes.
Back at Webb’s Sporting Goods the owner showed us his best selling gun, but not before he showed appreciation for the work done by the man he grew up with all his life.
“I wouldn’t want anyone else to be sheriff in this county. One of the top-notch guys,” Webb said about Wright.
Investigators told us they plan to make more arrests in these cases.
