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Burglar caught in the act
Cap Police

Duane Smith

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Police hunt

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A Twin Forks Road man blocked the path of a burglary suspect Monday, keeping the man from fleeing while he called for help. The suspect fled into the woods anyway, but tracking dogs and pursuing sheriff's deputies captured him a half mile away from the scene of the crime.
    Duane Smith was hauling a gooseneck trailer with his pickup truck around 11:30 a.m. Monday, heading home, when he noticed a suspicious car at his neighbor's residence, said Bulloch County Sheriff's Chief Investigator, Capt. Todd Hutchens.
    It matched the description of a car that had been seen at the residence a week earlier, before a burglary the homeowner hadn't reported.
    "It looked like the same car seen there last week," Smith said. "They took some change and all, and they didn't report it because they thought it was just some kids."
    But when Smith saw the car parked at the neighbor's driveway again, he decided to stop and investigate.
    When he did, he saw a man carrying firearms across the yard.
    "I saw him in the bushes, toting the guns," he said. The suspected burglar, later identified as Francis Brooks Kirby Folgarait, 21, Talmadge Avenue, Garden City,  dropped the guns and ran for his car, but Smith had him blocked.
    Folgarait drove through a cable across the driveway and turned around in  the victim's yard, apparently hoping to escape, Hutchens said. But Smith blocked him in, driving the  truck and trailer across a culvert to do so, he said, pointing out tire tracks across the ditch beside the driveway.
    Seeing he would be unable to drive away, Folgarait fled into the woods, Smith said.
    While waiting for law enforcement to arrive, Smith saw Folgarait appear again, this time to retrieve something from his vehicle.
    "I told him, there ain't no sense in running, boy, they're going to catch you," Smith said. But Folgarait returned to the woods.
    Bulloch County Sheriff's deputies and investigators arrived at the scene on the dirt portion of Twin Forks Road and called for assistance from the Reidsville State Prison K-9 unit and from Ellis Wood, who piloted a helicopter in search of the suspect.
    Georgia State Patrol troopers and others responded as well to help with the search.
    After the tracking dogs and handlers arrived, they and deputies scoured the wooded area near the victim's residence. Within an hour, Deputy J. G. Pollett sighted Folgarait about a half mile away from the scene of the burglary, and placed him under arrest, Hutchens said. "He surrendered without incident."
    Folgarait is charged with two counts of theft by taking firearms, and one count of burglary, he said. Other charged could be pending.
    Smith shrugged when someone commented upon his actions in detaining the suspect. "Next time, it could have been my house," he said.
    Investigators did not identify the burglary victim.
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