Good Detective Work Lands CA Man in WP Jail

California resident Delvin R. Jones (36) is now in the Washington Parish Jail charged with buying a zero-turn lawnmower for $8066.49 using a stolen credit card in September of 2016. The purchase was made over the phone and the lawnmower was delivered to a Washington Parish address.  The local business owner later received a letter that the card had been stolen.

WPSO detectives determined that the New Orleans owners of the credit card had recently been to California on vacation. They also obtained a California license plate number from a person who noticed a strange vehicle in the yard where the lawnmower had been delivered and wrote down the license plate number. Detectives identified the fraudulent purchaser as Delvin Jones from Oakland, California. A warrant for Jones was listed in the national criminal justice database.
Jones was stopped for a traffic offense in Austin, Texas in January, 2017 and he was arrested. Officers with the WPSO traveled to Austin to bring Jones back to Washington Parish.
The lawnmower has not been recovered and the case remains under investigation. It is suspected that Jones may have committed similar thefts in other parts of the country.