Union County Sheriff David Taylor is warning the public to be careful about posting information on the Internet after two Spartanburg County teens allegedly used Craigslist.com to find vehicles to steal in several Upstate counties.

Benjamin Michael Wiley, 18, 709 Glen Ridge Road, Spartanburg, and Dustin Ted Smith, 19, 7040 Highway 56, Pauline, are each charged by the sheriff’s office with two counts of larceny. Wiley and Smith are charged with stealing an EZ-Go golf cart worth $2,000 from a residence at 2010 Mt. Lebanon Road in July and a 2003 Honda Fourmen four-wheeler worth $4,000 from a shed at a residence at 115 Sweetwater Drive, Buffalo in October.

Lt. Terry Humphries said three weeks ago he received a call from a detective with the Spartanburg County Sheriff’s Office about a four-wheeler that his office had recovered in the course of an investigation. Humphries said the detective told him that his investigation led him to believe the four-wheeler had been stolen in Union County. He said the same day he was contacted by the detective, the owner of the four-wheeler came in to report it stolen. In making the report, Humphries said the owner said he’d parked the four-wheeler in his shed approximately two weeks earlier and had just noticed it missing.

Humphries said Wiley and Smith told Spartanburg County investigators that they had taken the vehicle, which was yellow, to a Spartanburg body shop and had it painted blue. He said the four-wheeler’s real color was showing through, however, and a check of its serial number confirmed it as being the vehicle stolen from the Sweetwater Drive location.

The golf cart has not been recovered.

Humphries said Wiley and Smith are charged in Spartanburg County with stealing a motorcycle, a golf cart and a four-wheeler; in Greenville County with stealing a four-wheeler; and in Pickens County with stealing a four-wheeler. He said they used the Internet site “Craig’s List” to find items they wanted to steal, fed the addresses into their GPS and used that information to travel to those locations and steal the items they wanted.

Taylor said the public needs to be especially careful when either listing things for sale or attempting to make purchases on Craigslist, eBay and similar Internet sites.

“People need to be very careful when trying to buy or sell on Craig’s List and eBay,” Taylor said. “People put their addresses and phone numbers on there, they put on what times they will be home and that can tell criminals when there’s nobody there and they can come and steal something.”

Humphries said Wiley and Smith did not, however, use the Internet to find the vehicles they stole in Union County. In the case of the golf cart, Humphries said the suspects were driving down the road and saw it and came back later that night and stole it. In the case of the four-wheeler, he said the two were looking for a back entrance into the Union County Speedway when they saw the vehicle and came back later and stole it.

Nevertheless, Humphries agreed the public needs to be careful about putting too much information on Internet sites like Craigslist. He added the investigation is continuing with a search being made of Wiley and Smith’s GPS and computer to determine if they were involved in any additional thefts.

Wiley and Smith are currently free on bond.