It was a mysterious and unexplained telephone call that allowed Garvin County law enforcement officials to actually listen to a crime as it happened.
The end result is the four teenage culprits of an area vandalism of rural mailboxes, traffic signs and even the sign at an animal park were caught in the act.
The recent vandalism spree now has one Wynnewood teen and his three juvenile partners in trouble with the law.
The one suspect old enough to face adults charges, 18-year-old Nathan Pardue, had four misdemeanor counts filed against him this week in Garvin County District Court.
All the charges accuse Pardue of being a participant in destroying some rural mailboxes in the Wynnewood area nearly a month ago, in addition to the vandalism of traffic signs and even a smaller entrance sign at the G.W. Exotic Animal Park.
The strange twist to the incident in the early morning hours of March 8 is a call mistakenly made from the cell phone carried by one of the juvenile suspects alerted authorities to the crime and led to the crime being solved.
During the destructive acts that teen’s cell phone in his pocket somehow was struck and mysteriously dialed the county sheriff’s office in Pauls Valley.
Officials are still not sure how it happened, but since it did dispatchers were able to not only listen but monitor the call for about 20 minutes.
During that stretch they actually heard the suspects talking about pulling up signs and smashing mailboxes.
“The call was approximately 20 minutes long and recorded four individuals specifically stating, ‘hit that mailbox,’ ‘rip that sign out,’ ‘look at those elk,’” Deputy Justin Norman stated in a filed affidavit.
The strange call allowed deputies to quickly track down the juvenile with the phone and the group of four suspects.
“He advised me he did not know how he dialed the sheriff’s office,” Norman stated, referring to an interview with the teen and one of his parents.
A check of the call log for the phone’s teen did show a call had been made to the sheriff’s office.
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