Daviess County sheriff's deputies charged two men with theft and unlawful transaction with a minor early Monday morning after one of the men accidentally dialed 911 during an alleged theft of scrap metal at a farm.
In addition, a juvenile was charged with theft by unlawful taking over $500 in the incident.
Sheriff's department reports say dispatchers received a 911 call about 2:40 a.m. Monday. Sgt. Kent Taul said dispatchers could hear people speaking about picking up items and putting them in a truck.
"Dispatch could hear them having an innocuous conversation about, 'It's heavy,' and 'Be careful,' " Taul said. "Dispatchers could hear two males and a female talking about the stuff they were loading."
Reports say dispatchers could also hear the sound of metal clanging. Because it was a 911 call, dispatchers traced the call and sent deputies to the phone's location, a farm on Kentucky 279 North.
"Any 911 call, absolutely any 911 call, we're going" to the source of the call, Taul said. "It doesn't matter if (the caller) tells us it was an accident, we're going, no matter what's on the other end of the line."
The caller apparently did not know 911 had been dialed. Taul said the line remained open and dispatchers were able to hear the entire conversation, and could also hear deputies calling for the suspects when they arrived at the farm.
"While you're on the phone with 911, the system is 100 percent accurate" in tracking a phone's location, Taul said. "We can tell where you are while you're on the phone."
Taul said the three suspects ran into a cornfield. Reports say Deputy Russ Day, the department's K-9 officer, ordered the suspects to come out. At that point, the two adults, later identified as Taylor B. Lindsey, 22, and Dylan T. Puckett, 20, both of the 4000 block of Benttree Drive, came out of the cornfield and surrendered.
"As soon as they heard the bark (of the K-9), they came out," Taul said. The third suspect, a juvenile, got lost in the field but managed to find her way back to the road, where she turned herself in to deputies, Taul said.
Lindsey and Puckett did not know one had an open line to 911 until after they were arrested.
"Officers on the scene mentioned, while they were cuffing (Lindsey and Puckett) that one of them had accidentally dialed 911," Taul said. "The other one was pretty upset with his buddy."
The juvenile was charged and released to her family. Lindsey and Puckett were both charged with theft by unlawful taking over $500 and third-degree unlawful transaction with a minor and were being held Monday afternoon at the Daviess County Detention Center.
Copyright 2014 - Messenger-Inquirer, Owensboro, Ky.
McClatchy-Tribune News Service
