Staff Writer

Multiple charges have been filed against a Union man suspected of taking utility trailers, lawn mowers and other items in 2006.

Vernon Lee Mosley, 53, whose last address was on 49 Loop, is being held in the South Carolina Department of Corrections on theft charges in another county. Warrants have been served on him charging him with two counts of third-degree burglary, grand larceny, six counts of petit larceny and one count of obtaining goods or money under false pretenses.

Mosley is accused of taking a push mower and gas can from a carport on 4053 Buffalo-West Springs Highway on July 4; entering a storage building on 210 Wesley Chapel Road on Aug. 18 and taking a leaf blower, air compressor, string trimmer and small refrigerator; taking an air conditioning unit from a front porch of a house on 6331 Whitmire Highway on Sept. 16; taking a trailer from the driveway of a home on 727 Bentleytown Road on Sept. 20; taking a utility trailer from a yard on 406 Bentleytown Road on Sept. 20; entering a storage building at a home on 715 Happy Valley Road and taking a pressure washer, weedeater, leaf blower and other items on Sept. 30.

The breach of trust charge stemmed from an incident on Sept. 19, 2006. A man on 117 Howell Road, Jonesville, reported that he looked out of his house and saw a burgundy Chevrolet Lumina in his yard near his utility trailer. Mosley was driving the car. Mosley told the man that his father-in-law had told Mosley he could borrow the trailer. The victim helped Mosley hook up the trailer and Mosley left.

Later, the victim talked with his father-in-law and he said he had not spoken with Mosley. The victim called Sheriff Howard Wells to report the incident. Deputies went to Mosley's home and talked with his parents, who said they had not seen Mosley or the trailer.

The victim on Howell Road said he came home and found his trailer was back. Mosley drove up pulling another trailer and asked why the man had called the police on him. The trailer Mosley was pulling matched the description of one of the trailers stolen from Bentleytown Road.

Officers looked for Mosley for several weeks after these incidents. An off duty reserve deputy spotted Mosley on Highway 56 in October 2006 pulling a trailer with a motorcycle on back. Around that same time, these items plus a string trimmer were reported stolen from a nearby home.

Mosley was taken into custody by Spartanburg County deputies who had received a tip about his whereabouts. He is also suspected of thefts in Cherokee and Newberry counties.