Manning man charged in string of alleged burglaries, thefts

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A 36-year-old Manning man gave three downtown businesses, a vehicle owner and the Manning Police Department quite the headache last week. Charles Jeffery Parker of 113 Robert St. in Manning had been out of the Clarendon County Detention Center for just three days after being charged with motor vehicle theft, disorderly conduct and driving under suspension, when he was apprehended again and charged with two counts each of second-degree burglary and petit larceny of $2,000 or less. Manning Police Chief Blair Shaffer said Parker's brush with the law began with the alleged theft of tools from near the old Up Town Fashions store on Brooks Street in Manning. The 38-year-old owner told police said someone took a Dewalt Hammer Drill valued at $275, a Maxpro angle finish nailer valued at $450 and a Milwaukee battery drill valued at $378 from the area about July 8. The owner then checked with a local pawnshop, and police traced the sale of some of those items to a 42-year-old woman. "She was just his girlfriend, and she was selling these things for him," Shaffer said. "We did not charge her with anything." The woman gave police Parker's name. Just five days later, Parker was seen sitting in a 2005 Volkswagen Jetta in a parking lot on West Boyce Street. Officers knew his license was suspended, and asked him who was driving the car. They reported Parker seemed nervous. Parker could provide no number or name for who owned the vehicle. Dispatch found the owner, who said she had taken the car to a local auto repair shop to have it fixed and that Parker should not have had the vehicle. Parker was taken to jail, and was released on a $2,500 surety bond the next day. "At this point, he had gotten out," Shaffer said. "We knew of other items that he had possibly stolen from some other stores due to descriptions that his girlfriend gave us. She said the items were at his home." Parker lives with his father, Shaffer said, and the chief has known the man for several years. "He told me I could come by and look at the stuff he was sure his son had stolen," Shaffer said. "He had told his son to get it out of his house, and that he didn't want it in there." The items traced back to Maxway and Simpsons. The items from Maxway included two shovels, a rake, a hoe, three chairs and two blue swimming pools. A black tent bag containing miscellaneous tools and a metal hose reel with about 100 feet of reel on it. Shaffer said Parker took the items from outside those stores. "I asked Maxway if there were any way he bought the items, and they told me he was on a no trespass notice," Shaffer said. "And at Simpsons, they actually went out to water their outside plants and flowers one morning and their hose and reel were gone." Parker was denied bond on the burglary charges. He remains at the Clarendon County Detention Center.