On Wednesday, Sept. 15, a theft was reported from a machine shop located on Falcon Boulevard near the Fairhope Municipal Airport. The owner reported that an unknown person had entered his property and stolen about one ton of metal alloy bars valued at approximately $10,000. The case was assigned to Detective Charles Varnado of the Fairhope Police Department Criminal Investigations Unit. Varnado began narrowing down the options for disposing of a large amount of metal alloys such as this, and his investigation put him in contact with a scrap metal company in Escambia County, Fla. The owner of that scrap metal business confirmed that he had recently purchased the metals and Detective Varnado obtained the records associated with the sale. Detective Varnado developed sufficient evidence to arrest two Baldwin County men for the theft.

Chet Daniel Mims, age 28, was arrested Friday, Sept. 17 at his residence in Silverhill. On Monday, Sept. 20, Adan J. Alaniz, age 30, was arrested at his residence in Summerdale. Both subjects were charged with first-degree felony theft of property and booked into the Fairhope Municipal Jail, but were subsequently transferred to the Baldwin County Corrections Center in Bay Minette. All of the stolen metal has been recovered.