Cop in the right spot at the right time catches crook

WAYLAND, Mich. (NEWSCHANNEL 3) – An Illinois man is in police custody Monday, charged with several crimes including breaking and entering and theft because a cop was in the right place at the right time.

On Sunday morning a robber hatched a plan to steal some flat-screen TVs from RVs at the General RV Center in Wayland, that plan was foiled by an officer near a wooded area next to the center.

Police say Mark Macis, from Illinois, stole seven flat-screen TVs out of RVs at the store.

Wayland Police Chief Dan Miller showed Newschannel 3 the tools of the accused burglar on Monday.

“He was pretty organized,” said Chief Miller. “Gloves over here he was wearing, all these different tools, binoculars.”

All the stuff was packed into a bag, and it just so happened that on Sunday morning an officer spotted the man holding that bag hanging out in the weeds outside the RV center off U.S. 131.

Police say the TVs were hidden in the woods and they believe the suspect was about to load them into a car when an officer happened to see him hiding in the brush.

“Out of state plates, so he's out of Chicago,” said Chief Miller. “So he traveled quite a distance to come up here to do this, so we think he cased the place at one point or another.”

The manager of the store received a call in the middle of the night that his shop had been burglarized, that call brought him both terror and relief.

“It's about time they caught somebody,” said Kevin Schultz, General RV Manager. “Hard to catch, very elusive, and it was by chance, and officer Newberry, paying attention and pulled it off.”

Police chased Macis for a short distance before they brought him into custody near the RV center.

The arrest is a victory in a battle that's been going on for police agencies for several years, how to stop thieves from breaking into RV centers in the middle of the night.

Detectives admit it's been tough to stop such crimes from happening. In 2009 they formed a statewide task-force to combat the problem.

But on Sunday in Wayland, police had the upper hand just by being in the right spot at the right time.

“It's heartbreaking, but they did a great job,” said Schultz.

“Especially for a small agency, to intercept somebody like this, you do it for the business as well, otherwise we would have been out there Monday morning, taking a report and everybody would be upset,” said Chief Miller.