Chattanooga Pulse

It was one of those stories that sounded more like a plot to a television crime show than a real life situation.  A few weeks ago, a woman came home to find her house burglarized and saw an unfamiliar car leaving her driveway.  She called police on her cell phone and followed the car until officers were able to catch up with her and the suspicious vehicle.  Upon stopping the car, the people in the vehicle attempted to flee on foot and were quickly apprehended, where it was discovered that they were in possessions of property they had stolen from the home.

During the course of questioning the suspects, detectives learned that one Michael Pittman, a convicted felon, was responsible for running a three-person burglary ring that has been linked to nearly 60 burglaries in the Chattanooga and North Georgia areas.  Based on information obtained during questioning, Pittman, along with Teresa Ann Whisenhut and Jerry Hixson were taken into custody, with all three confessing to the five-week crime spree.

Pittman had already served a ten year sentence for a similar crime spree back in 1996 that involved nearly 150 home break-ins.  Chattanooga Police Deputy Chief Mark Rawlston said that the crimes were committed to feed a drug habit for the three involved, based on statements from the suspects combined with the fact that they primarily stole only cash and jewelry, which they later pawned around town.

Investigators were able to recover a large amount of stolen property and are in the process of identifying the items and attempting to contact the many burglary victims.  Which is where they need your help.  If you have been a victim of a home burglary between the beginning of March through the end of the first week of April, whether you reported the crime or not, they want to hear from you and get your help in identifying specific stolen items.

Chattanooga residents should call Sergeant Rebecca Shelton at (423) 643-5122, Catoosa County residents should call Detective Donald Roach at (706) 935-2424, Hamilton County residents should call Detective Steve Burnette at (423) 209-8954, East Ridge residents should call Detective Gwen Cribbs at (423) 227-5448, and Collegedale residents should call Detective Katherine cooper at (423) 242-8466.

At a Thursday press conference, representatives from each of the agencies spoke about how the suspects targeted their specific homes and how homeowners can help prevent themselves and their homes from being targeted.  Pittman said he looked only for houses without an alarm system sign, never once breaking in to a home with such a system.  Officials also said that the best defense, besides an alarm system, was a neighborhood watch or even what they call being a “nosy neighbor”.

Addressing a question about whether the faltering economy had anything to do with the crime spree, Chief Rawlston was quick to respond in the negative.  “These people were engaging in crime to feed a drug habit, not a family,” he said.  “We have seen no evidence that the economy has fallen to the point where people are left with no options other than crime to support themselves.”  In fact, both violent and non-violent crimes in Chattanooga and Hamilton County are showing no signs of increasing, with violent crime numbers are falling quite sharply.