Earl Nowlain, 25, of Kempner, was arrested on January 14^th and confessed to the Kempner burglary. That arrest then led to the next arrest on James Nash, 17, of Lampasas, who admitted to contributing to the crime. His bond of $10,000, along with Nowlain’s bond of $35,000, and both were released. Nowlain was rearrested this past Tuesday in connection with the Kempner burglary and he remains in jail on a new bond of $50,000.

Traced to these cases, was the January 20^th incident where the Lampasas Fire Department responded to a 1993 Jeep Wrangler that was sitting on the 580 E. roadside four miles from Lampasas.  Fire Marshall Reese Oestrich determined the fire was caused by arson and joined the investigation. An anonymous tip was received this week about the arson fire and that took investigators to two suspects, brothers Brandon Scott, 17, of Kempner and Craig Scott, 22, of Copperas Cove. Brandon Scott was arrested Thursday and is in jail on a $5,000 bond, while Craig Scott was arrested Friday and has a pending bond.

Seery reported that the group of four then confessed to driving around communities in the middle of the day and spotting items in garages and outside homes. They would then go back and steal the items between 10pm-1am. The stolen items ranged from small things like a pressure washer to larger items that even included scaffolding. There have been fifteen reports of thefts so far that related to these cases. They come to an estimated 15-20 thousand dollars in value and about three truck loads of evidence hauled in by the local Sheriff’s Department.

Seery said that the investigation is still ongoing, and more thefts and stolen property may be found. If you are missing anything, especially tools, call the Sheriff’s Department, as they are still looking for the owners of some of the stolen property.