Published: November 05, 2009 09:51 pm      

Man arrested in pharmacy burglary

A Houston man was arrested earlier this week in connection with the August burglary of a Huntsville pharmacy.

James Daniel Betts, 33, was arrested Nov. 3 by Oak Ridge North police and charged with at least two counts of commercial burglary stemming from investigations in Walker and Montgomery County.

On Aug. 14 a burglary was committed at Huntsville’s CVS Pharmacy in which a white male suspect entered the building while breaking a window and left with a large amount of cigarettes.

A similar burglary was later committed at the same pharmacy on Oct. 6.

Both cases were assigned to Detective Marvin Hyvl of the Huntsville Police Department, who specialized in burglaries.

As part of his investigation Hyvl issued press releases on the case through Walker County Crime Stoppers. The publicity on the case yielded two tips that pointed to Betts, leading Hyvl to obtain a warrant for his arrest.

After learning of several similar pharmacy burglaries in the Oak Ridge North area, Hyvl began working Detective Jim Ford of the Oak Ridge North Police Department, who had also obtained a warrant for Betts’ arrest.

After a coordinated effort between the two departments and several other agencies, Betts was arrested at an unidentified location in Houston. He was then transported to the Montgomery County Jail, where he is being held on two charges of commercial burglary, on from Oak Ridge North and one from the Aug. 14 burglary of the Huntsville CVS.

Hyvl said he is still investigating possible connection between Betts and the Oct. 6 CVS burglary.

“With the assistance of Detective Ford and the Crime Stoppers tips were able to solve this burglary,” Hyvl said. “I just want to thank everyone involved.”