A man declared missing after disappearing with a work vehicle last week is now behind bars for allegedly stealing about $3,500 worth of drinks and snacks.
Antiquon Harris, 35, of 2611 17th Ave. N., was arrested Monday and charged with one count of embezzlement.
Harris, a former driver at Corporate Dining Concepts on Tuscaloosa Road, was reported missing last week after he and his van did not show up for work. His supervisor, Regional District Manager for Mississippi and Alabama Jon Ball, said Harris was supposed to have made a delivery to the Cottondale and Northport offices in Alabama on Jan. 30, but he never arrived. The van Harris was driving was discovered abandoned off a highway outside Waynesboro on Feb. 1.
Harris called his mother Saturday night and told her he was all right, but he did not tell her his location. On Monday, he called Ball and told him he’d been robbed on the side of the road, Ball told The Dispatch.
Ball said he told Harris to tell investigators at the Columbus Police Department what had happened. Officers with the CPD arrested Harris later that day.
“He called me Monday, told me some fabricated story,” Ball said. “I told him to go down and talk to investigators so they would have all the facts straight according to him, and he said he was just scared (and) that’s why he didn’t report the crime (or) call anybody and just disappeared, which we don’t truly believe were the facts. … And obviously the investigators didn’t believe the same.”
Ball said Harris was terminated earlier this week on the grounds of job abandonment.
Harris’ bond has been set at $15,000. He was still in the Lowndes County Adult Detention Center as of press time.
He was already out of jail on $15,000 bond from a June 2016 arrest for burglary of a dwelling, domestic violence-aggravated assault and possession of a weapon by a convicted felon. A grand jury has not yet indicted him on those charges.
A Lowndes County Circuit Court jury convicted Harris in 2004 of conspiracy to distribute marijuana.
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