Features Editor

A Prattville man was in the Pike County Jail on Monday after breaking into a funeral home, stealing and wrecking a vehicle and "bumping" into police officers at Hardee’s on U.S. Highway 231 in Brundidge.

Brundidge Police Chief Moses Davenport said a strange string of events and two alert police officers led to the arrest of Shannon Allen Williams, 25, of 831 Ginshop Hill Road, Prattville, around 1:30 a.m. Monday.

"Sgt. Charles Wilson and Officer Andrew Hall were on patrol around 1 a.m. Monday and were on the north side of Hardee’s when a car wheeled around the building from the south side," Davenport said. "The driver stopped and asked the officers where he could get two flat tires fixed. The officers told him everything was closed and he wouldn’t be able to get the tires fixed until the shops opened around 7 a.m. The officers asked the man where he was from and he said that he was not from around here."

When the man drove off toward the Chevron station across the street, the officers noticed the car, a 1999 Ford Crown Victoria, had a 55 tag, Davenport said.

"The officers started a check on the tag and went over and questioned the man about the car," Davenport said. "He said that (the) Rev. Hicks told him he could use the car and the officers didn’t know a Rev. Hicks, so they were really suspicious."

The check on the tag revealed that it belonged to Dillard Funeral Home, Davenport said.

"That was enough to bring the man to the station and Wilson and Hall then went to check out the funeral home," he said. "They found somebody had broken into it, and they called the owner who came and found that three checks had been removed from a checkbook in a desk drawer. A credit card was missing and (so was) a set of keys and a speaker from the chapel."

Wilson and Hall also noticed a truck with a Prattville Street Department logo on the grounds and contacted the Prattville Police Department, Davenport said.

"The truck had been stolen from a Prattville work area some time over the weekend," he said. "Further investigation of the area around Dillard’s Funeral Home revealed a construction sign that was knocked over, so the officers decided the man must have hit the sign, causing the front and rear tires on the passenger side to go flat."

Two guitars and an amplifier were found in the Ford Crown Victoria.

Davenport said Williams was arrested and charged with theft, first degree, burglary and under the influence of a controlled substance.

Williams was being held in the Pike County Jail and Davenport said he will picked up by the Prattville Police Department.