COVINGTON, La. (WGNO) – Three men arrested over the weekend in Florida have been tied to “felony lane gang” car burglaries in St. Tammany Parish.
Thomas Hankerson, 25, Corey Hall, 22, and Cedric Camper, 18, all of Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, were apprehended in Tallahassee, Florida, Friday.
The three men have been linked to at least five of the recent car burglaries in St. Tammany Parish.
The arrests came after St. Tammany Parish Sheriff’s detectives tied the three to at least five of the recent car burglaries that have been occurring in St. Tammany Parish over the past couple of weeks.
The sheriff’s office said the term “felony lane gang” was originally used to describe criminals who would target the drive-through lane at the bank that was the farthest from the tellers to help hide their identity. Since then, the term has been adapted to describe crime scenes that are in high traffic areas but farthest from possible witnesses.
They will often break the vehicles’ windows and steal the valuables that are in plain sight.
Detectives traced the suspects to Florida after one of them allegedly used a stolen credit card. Detectives are now working to determine if these three are responsible for other similar crimes that occurred in recent months in St. Tammany and surrounding areas.
The sheriff’s office said last week that deputies were working at least 10 “felony lane gang” cases this year.