Lawn ornament thief sentenced

Michael Ransom Hobbs, II, of Mountain Home changed his plea to guilty during a session of Baxter County Circuit Court Thursday on a long string of charges stemming from the theft of lawn ornaments throughout the county.He was sentenced to 12 months probation and ordered to pay almost $900 in restitution.

The 25-year-old Hobbs was arrested in late September last year after victims of one of the thefts noticed what they believed to be lawn ornaments that had been stolen from them on display in front of a second hand store in Gassville. The victims reported the sighting to law enforcement.

The owner of the store identified Hobbs as the person who sold the items to the business and told investigators he had purchases several like items from Hobbs during a four-month period.

Media reports regarding the alleged thefts led to a number of other victims coming forward and matching their stolen lawn ornaments with those at the second hand store. Information developed by those contacts enabled the Mountain Home Police Department and the Baxter County Sheriff’s Office to close a number of active theft investigations.

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