Pair of Gadsden teens face multiple theft charges

 Gadsden, Al.

Two Gadsden teenagers have been charged with stealing iPods and computers at Walmart in Attalla, then breaking into a car in the parking lot and stealing a purse, Attalla Police Chief Lamont Tucker said.

They also are charged by the Etowah County Sheriff’s Office with the theft of two four-wheelers, Sheriff Todd Entrekin said.

Christian Conner Lee Dawson                    Joshua David Parrish

Christian Conner Lee Dawson, 18, and Joshua David Parrish, 19, were charged with second-degree theft, unlawful breaking and entering a vehicle and third-degree theft, Tucker said.

They also are charged by the Etowah County Sheriff’s Office with first-degree theft of two four-wheelers stolen on Feb. 3 on Crudup Road off U.S. Highway 11, Investigator Jason Argo said.

Argo said the sheriff’s department got a call on Feb. 4 that the four-wheelers had been at a residence on Spring Rock Street in Gadsden, where Parrish lives.

At that residence, investigators talked to Parrish’s uncle, David Lee Parrish, 35, who was taken into custody on outstanding warrants for distribution of a controlled substance.

It was determined the four-wheelers were in the woods on Pennsylvania Avenue, a few blocks from Spring Rock Street, and they were recovered that night, Argo said.

Dawson and Joshua David Parrish allegedly went in Walmart about 11 p.m. Feb. 5 and broke into the locked cabinet where iPod products and laptops are kept, Tucker said.

They took several iPods and a laptop, threw them over a fence in the store’s garden center and left the store.

Tucker said they retrieved the items from outside the store, then stole a purse from a Toyota Tacoma pickup parked at the store.

The teens admitted to police they had stolen at least 10 cellphones from Walmart in the last few weeks.

They were taken into custody on Feb. 6 after being stopped by police in Southside on a traffic violation. They were identified as suspects in the Attalla and Etowah County investigations.

Tucker said Lt. Doug Jordan led the Attalla investigation.