A man set to go before a jury in Baxter County Circuit Court last Tuesday decided instead to plead guilty to the charges against him.
Fifty-one-year-old Stephen Townsend, who lists an address in Wideman, was sentenced to 48 months probation.
According to the probable cause affidavit, Townsend is alleged to have picked up a woman’s purse left on a chair at Baxter Regional Medical Center.
A man later reported to the Mountain Home Police Department(MHPD)that he had put his wife’s purse down in the chair at the hospital and when he returned it was gone.
Video surveillance showed a male and female approach the purse and remove it from the chair. The male is later seem carrying the purse through the hospital
Soon, unauthorized charges began showing up on a credit card that had been in the stolen purse.
At one location where a purchase was made, video from a surveillance camera was reported to show an unidentified male using the card.
The image was put on social media by MHPD requesting assistance from the public in identifying the person.
According to the probable cause affidavit, a Flippin police officer reported to MHPD he had done a traffic stop and that the person in the vehicle, who had been identified as Townsend, appeared to be the male seen on the video surveillance tape.
Townsend was arrested.
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