WAFB Channel 9, Baton Rouge, LA |Livingston burglars arrested while trying to gas up their getaway car

Livingston burglars arrested while trying to gas up their getaway car

By Tyana Williams - bio | email

WATSON, LA (WAFB) - Deputies say it's probably "Crime 101."  If you're going to burglarize a home, make sure your gas tank is full.  However, in this case, that slip up allowed a neighbor to tell police exactly where to find their suspects.  Two Denham Springs residents were carted off to the Livingston Parish Detention Center Friday morning.  That's after they were caught trying to fill up their gas tank, using one of the credit cards they allegedly stole.

Some workers at a truck stop on Magnolia Beach Road say Livingston deputies pulled up early this morning, guns drawn and arrested two people trying to pump $25 worth of gas.

At eight and a half months pregnant, 25-year-old Charlie Jo Wilson probably doesn't want to be behind bars.  But Friday evening, that's where she was, along with 29-year-old Bryan Wayne Bridwell.  Livingston deputies say a shopping spree around eight Friday morning, in Watson's Hickory Ridge subdivision earned the duo a trip to jail.

"A call from a concerned neighbor says she thought that her neighbors house was being burglarized," says Perry Rushing with the Livingston Parish Sheriff's Office.  Deputies say the two picked the house because at the time, there was no car in the driveway.  But that's what got one neighbors attention.  A neighbor says she noticed the suspicious car, so she texted the homeowner to see what was going on.  When the homeowner texted back no, the neighbor got in her car and drove down the street.  She says she hid behind a bush and then followed the suspects when they left.

The neighbor and the homeowner's brother-in-law followed the car here to Frog's Truck Stop. Deputies say Bridwell tried to use a stolen credit card to fill his tank.  When the card wouldn't swipe at the pump, he went inside.  It was declined twice.  Turns out the homeowner never activated the card.

"I could tell he got frustrated after the card didn't work.  Then he kind of threw a bunch of ones and said put that on the gas.  And he didn't go outside, he went walking that way," says Gus Abousweid, who works at Frog's.  Abousweid says Bridwell saw five or six deputies pull up, and went to the men's room.  That's where deputies say Bridwell stashed the homeowner's pistol and credit card, in a trash can.

A look inside their getaway car revealed a stolen computer, stolen medication, more credit cards and the face plate to an ATM machine that was allegedly stolen from Baton Rouge.

The neighbor says she was unable to give deputies the plate number to the car, because it was covered by a T-shirt.

The sheriff's department says without the homeowner getting involved, the accused burglars may have gotten away.  The homeowner now has all her possessions back.

Charlie Jo Wilson faces one count of Improper Display of License Plate and one count Simple Burglary.  Bryan Wayne Bridwell has been charged with one count Possession of a Firearm by a Convicted Felon, one count Simple Burglary of an Inhabited Dwelling, one count Possession of Stolen Things, two counts Attempted Unauthorized Use of an Access Card and one count Simple Criminal Damage to Property.

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