A man who managed to take more than 35 peanut trailers in cases known to investigators appeared in a Decatur County courtroom Tuesday morning and was given a bond of $20,000.

Investigators believe Jerrod Truclock, 34, of Grady County was lying to peanut farms by using his uncle’s connections as a farmer and collected trailers from farms in a tri-county area for months before selling them as scrap metal.

Criminal investigator Brian Donalson with the Decatur County Sheriff’s Department said while Truclock stole three trailers from local Decatur County farm Climax Enterprises, he stole even more from other counties.

“He actually was going by the disguise of working for his uncle who is a farmer in the Whigham area of Grady County,” Donalson explained and said he believed through investigations that Truclock was going up to farms and saying he was helping his uncle, a peanut farmer and would ask for a trailer.

What tipped investigators off in Colquitt County, Donalson said, was that CTV Salvage in Moultrie had purchased multiple trailers from Truclock and started to get suspicious. Donalson said Truclock was receiving on average $400 to $500 for each trailer.

“We charged him with three counts of felony theft by taking we arrested him in our county though he resides in Grady county,” Donalson said, who said the department arrested him on Antioch Church Road Friday at 3 p.m. and found him with a controlled substance, for which he was also charged.