A 36-year-old Summerton man was charged early Thursday morning for his role in allegedly stealing a green 2004 John Deere 5420 tractor from a farm on Evening Shade Drive in Summerton about 12:40 p.m. Wednesday.
Kenneth Clark Gray, 36, of 1405 Goslin Pond Drive in Summerton, was arrested about 7:35 p.m. Wednesday in the area of Oaks and Dingle Pond roads driving both the truck and trailer caught on video near the farm shed from where the tractor was taken.
A 70-year-old man told deputies with the Clarendon County Sheriff's Office that he left the tractor hooked up to a hay baller at the farm shed and drove into Summerton to eat lunch. He said while coming back to the farm shed, he passed a white, four-door truck with a white male driver who was pulling a trailer with a tractor on it.
When the man made it back to the farm, he noticed the tractor he had hooked to the hay baller was gone.
Deputies put out a BOLO (be on the lookout) for surrounding counties, but deputies spotted the suspect about seven hours later and detained him with a felony traffic stop.
Sgt. Earnest T. Broadway reported the suspect said he had a gun in his boot during the stop, and Broadway found a .380-caliber Smith and Wesson bodyguard pistol in the suspect's left boot.
Broadway reported that Gray was allegedly carrying a different tractor on the trailer when he was found, a Kubota, although the suspect still had a John Deere tractor key. The suspect's wife showed up, and deputies told her that her husband allegedly stole a tractor during the day.
The wife then allegedly told deputies that her husband said he was keeping the tractor for a friend that lives in Orangeburg. Asked where the tractor was, the wife and the couple's son ultimately led deputies to it. The tractor was found in a cleaned out place in the woods near Gray's home.
Gray was charged with grand larceny of a value of $10,000 or more; third-degree burglary; and petty larceny. An official at the Clarendon County Detention Center said that Gray will likely be in bond court Friday morning.
