An AT&T employee on Friday helped police catch one suspect in cutting down cable lines in the middle of the day outside North Orange Baptist Church. Another suspect drove away.

Orange Officer D.A. Dorman reported the AT&T employee called police about noon after seeing two men possibly cutting cable lines along the front of the church at 4775 North 16th Street.

The officer reported that when he arrived, he saw a man sitting on the curb near a church parking lot. Several pieces of cut cable along with an axe were by the man. The man told the officer he noticed the cut cable and gathered it because he might sell it to a metal dealer.

The officer said the AT&T employee identified the man as one he saw. The employee told the officer the other man left in a black Toyota sedan.

According to the officer, the employee said the wire is about 50 percent copper. The cut cable will cost about $300 to replace with about $800 worth of labor.

Officer Dorman said 39-year-old Steven Paul Richardson of Orange was arrested and taken to the Orange County Jail.

A DPS trooper Sunday night stopped a pickup truck soon after it was reported stolen from a convenience store on Edgar Brown Drive.

Orange Police Officer D.A. Dorman said the owner of the truck said he had left the 2015 Ford F150 at a gas pump with the motor running and the keys in the ignition.

Dorman reported  the theft was at 7:55 p.m. at the Shell station, 3118 Edgar Brown Drive. He said DPS Trooper Priest spotted the truck and it sped away. However, he stopped it in Bridge City.

According to Dorman, the teenager said he lives in Port Arthur and needed a ride home. When he saw the truck left running, he took it to drive back to that city. He planned to leave it a public parking lot in Port Arthur and then walk home.

The DPS trooper took the teen to the Orange County Jail after arresting him for evading arrest in a vehicle.

Written by KOGT Radio