One of the five lawn mowers stolen from the John Deere dealership on Dothan Rd. between October and November 2015 was recovered late last week in Tift County.

John Deere first reported that two mowers were missing on Oct. 28, 2015, after discovering them missing during inventory. The second theft was reported on Nov. 9, 2015, after it was discovered that three mowers were missing from behind a locked fence at the dealership and that the fence had been cut in two places.

The mower that was recovered was part of the second theft and valued at just under $9,000. It was recovered in the possession Darin Pearce who was arrested by the Tift County Sherriff’s department as part of an ongoing investigation into widespread equipment thefts throughout the South Georgia.

“Recently in Tifton a subject was arrested for [the theft],” Bainbridge Public Safety investigator Mark Esquivel said. “They were doing it all over South Georgia.”

According to Esquivel the case has stretched into North Carolina where an individual was also arrested. BPS could not confirm whether Pearce was directly involved in the theft in Bainbridge or if he had acquired the mower after the theft.

“We have recovered one mower so far,” Esquivel said. “We are still working on recovering the others and maybe more.”

BPS is working with the Tift County Sheriff’s Office, Mitchell County Sheriff’s Office, Decatur County Sheriff’s Office, the Moultrie Police Department and others on the case and others related to it.

“We are helping with anything to do with any of those counties,” Decatur County Sheriff Wiley Griffin.

Decatur County Sheriff’s Office is not involved directly in the case of the theft at John Deere, but they are helping with the investigation as a whole.