A utility trailer gone missing, then later found at a house in Martin County, led to the arrest of a Williamston couple recently.

Russell Rhodes Roberson, 70, and Joyce Diane Roberson, 64, both of Ballard Road, Williamston, were arrested on July 30 by Martin County Sheriff’s Office deputies on Beaufort County warrants. The two were charged with felony possession of stolen property and obtaining property by false pretense.

According to a press release from the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office, the utility trailer was reported stolen from a residence on Biggs Road in Pinetown on the morning of June 14.

At some point between June 14 and the day investigators located the trailer in Martin County, it was sold to the Robersons by Edward Lewis Hudson, 36, and Tammy Smith Latham, 38, both of Briggs Avenue in Pinetown. Then the Robersons sold the trailer to another party at whose residence the trailer was found, according to Maj. Kenneth Watson, spokesman for the sheriff’s office.

Between June 8 and June 23, another utility trailer, a car trailer, a generator, chainsaws, a pressure washer and numerous hand tools were reported stolen from the yards and outbuildings of three locations: East Barr Road, Chocowinity; U.S. Highway 17 North in Washington; and Slatestone Road in Washington, according to another press release from the sheriff’s office.

Two men — Mark Shane Tripp, 37, of Chapel Branch Road, Chocowinity, and Charles Patrick Craddock, 42, of Dymond City Road, Jamesville — were arrested on breaking and entering, larceny and other charges for the second string of break-ins in Beaufort County. Some of the items the two have been accused of stealing were also located at the Robersons’ Williamston address.

“We’ve conducted multiple searches on the property that have turned up stolen goods,” said Maj. Kenneth Watson, spokesman for the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office, about the Roberson’s Ballard Road address. “They are receiving stolen goods and reselling them for profit.”

According to Watson, some of the recent thefts were crimes of opportunity, but others appear to have been for items either ordered or requested stolen by the reseller.

The sheriff’s office is currently working several cases that tie in with local thefts, their resale to a fence who, in turn, sells the ill-gotten goods again, he said.

“We’ve got multiple cases — we’ve been able to solve several cases; others are unsolved but they’re ongoing; there are several we’re working on and we’ll be able to make some arrests,” he said. “We anticipate additional arrests.”

 No images of the Robersons or Craddock were available for print.