Nine People Arrested After Lamar County Cracks Down on Auto Burglaries. More Than 40 Charges

HATTIESBURG MISS. - Nine people find are behind bars tonight, facing auto burglary charges. Together, they face more than 40 charges connected to a string of auto burglaries in the Pine Belt.

The arrests come after a two-day operation held by the Lamar County Sheriff's Department. The department identified two different groups burglarizing areas on the opposite sides of the county. Lamar County Sheriff, Danny Rigel says he still expects more arrests to be made.

"Last couple of weeks we've had a lot of auto burglaries. Most of them were vehicles that were left unlocked. We had various items stolen. The last couple of nights we worked to develop some suspects,” Rigel said. “We worked really hard and we arrested two the other night, and seven more last night for a total of nine. Two of them were juveniles and we're still looking for another one. We expect more arrests. We're kind of sorting through to find out what we got. What belongs to who, and that kind of stuff. We basically had two different groups working and one was working one part of the county, and the other one was working the other part of the county."

Rigel reminds everyone to lock their doors, and hide their valuables.