A man accused of making multiple harassing and threatening phone calls to a Columbus business has been arrested.
Lorenzo L. Richard, 39, of Ashland, is charged with cyberstalking. Deputies with Benton County Sheriff’s Office arrested him Friday after Columbus Police Department issued a felony warrant for him. Richard was taken to Columbus and is now at Lowndes County Adult Detention Center, according to a CPD press release.
Authorities say Richard made hundreds of calls to a Columbus business, making sexual and other inappropriate comments to women who answered the phone. The phone calls began in September, and in recent weeks, Richard began threatening violence against those who answered the phone, the press release said. Richard allegedly made the phone calls from his home in Ashland.
CPD did not release the business’ name.
Police released an audio recording of one of the phone calls in February in hopes that someone could identify the suspect’s voice. In the recording, the suspect asks a woman if she’s married, what time she gets off work and other inappropriate, sometimes sexually explicit, questions.
“We take threats like this seriously,” Columbus Police Chief Fred Shelton said in the release. “We have the technology and the skills to find persons making threats like this and we will find them and arrest them. The technology we have now is better than ever, and we use it to bring that person to justice.”
Investigators do not believe Richard was directing the calls at any one employee because he called multiple numbers at the business during its hours of operations, the press release said.
Richard’s bond has not been set.
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