AMY SZPARA

LAPLACE – A 32-year-old Reserve man, who had been hiding out in a vacant home in Sugar Ridge subdivision in LaPlace, was arrested Monday night after the St. John Sheriff’s Office linked several recent parish building burglaries to him. The suspect, Troy W. Vollentine, of 263 W. First St., Apt. B., was booked with three counts of simple burglary, three counts of criminal damage to property at under $500 and one count of possession of stolen items valued at up to $500. “We had been having a lot of burglaries at night and in the early morning hours,” said Capt. Mike Tregre of the St. John Sheriff’s Office. “They were of a similar nature. They had disabled alarms, ransacked businesses, cut wires.” Some of the buildings were parish buildings, including the Job Training Partnership Act and the Community Action Center buildings on Central Avenue in Reserve. The annex to the District Attorney’s Office on West Fifth St. in LaPlace where worthless checks and child support are handled was also burglarized. “What broke the case was an officer on patrol over the weekend finding a parked truck. Inside was a magazine taken from the D.A.’s office with a police officer’s name on it,” said Tregre. According to Tregre, evidence linked Vollentine to some of the burglaries and he has been charged with three. The investigation is ongoing, however. “He’s being looked at for a number of burglaries,” he said. When someone tipped the sheriff’s office that Vollentine was staying with a friend in a house that is for sale at 1824 Cinclair Loop, authorities began conducting surveillance on the house. Tregre added that Vollentine was an inmate at the Sherman R. Walker Correctional Center in LaPlace at one time and he was eventually a trusty at the facility. Police are now investigating further to find out what convictions he has had in the past. St. John Sheriff Wayne L. Jones is expected to hold a press conference later this week to release further information on the arrest and the extent of the burglaries, including items taken and the amount of damage done to the properties. Vollentine is being held at the Sherman R. Walker Correctional Center.