http://www.gadsdentimes.com/article/200 ... in_custodyThree claiming to be bail bondsmen in custody
By Lisa Rogers
Times Staff Writer
Published: Tuesday, September 23, 2008 at 7:01 a.m.
Last Modified: Monday, September 22, 2008 at 10:37 p.m.
Three men who claim to be bail bondsmen are in custody after they apparently flashed badges, a gun and posed as law enforcement officers in robberies in Boaz and the Kilpatrick area during the weekend.
Collinsville Police Chief Gary Bowen arrested the men Sunday night after he spotted a sport utility vehicle and three men inside who fit the description given in the robberies Saturday and Sunday.
Donny Lynn Hollingsworth, 29, and David Edwin Taylor, 35, both of Guntersville, and Joey Lynn Stephens, 40, of Boaz, are in custody in DeKalb County, charged with first-degree theft, second-degree burglary and criminal conspiracy, DeKalb County Sheriff Jimmy Harris said.
The men claimed to be working with two area bail-bonding companies as “bounty hunters,” Harris said.
The men are suspects in two separate incidents in the Kilpatrick area Saturday afternoon in which three men, dressed in black and one carrying a handgun, went in the homes and posed as FBI agents who were part of a fugitive recovery unit and said they were looking for a suspect, Harris said.
The men searched the houses and took money from people inside the houses before leaving in a dark-colored sport utility vehicle.
Boaz police detectives are investigating a similar incident that happened Sunday at a house, Boaz Police Chief Terry Davis said.
Three men wearing badges around their necks and dressed in black — one wearing a T-shirt that had the letters FTA on it — went inside a house on Denson Avenue about 11 a.m., Davis said.
The men apparently told the victims inside the house that they were federal officers looking for marijuana. The men took more than $1,000 in cash from the men’s wallets and left in a dark-colored SUV.
Bowen said he had heard the alert for a dark-colored SUV and three men connected with the incidents on Saturday and Sunday, but got a call about 5:30 p.m. Sunday that an SUV and three men fitting the description were seen in Collinsville on Railroad Avenue.
He drove in that direction and then spotted the SUV pull onto North Valley Drive, which is U.S. Highway 11. Bowen said he called for backup from Collins-ville Assistant Chief Rex Leath and was waiting for Leath when the men in the SUV pulled into an old motel that is now apartments.
Bowen said he stopped nearby and watched the men go up to a door at one of the apartments.
When they got back in the SUV, they drove toward him and got out, explaining they were bail bondsmen and had a flier of a man they were looking for.
Bowen said Leath arrived a short time later and the men were arrested.
After the men were arrested Sunday in Collinsville, Davis said investigators went to DeKalb County and have determined the three men in custody are the suspects in the Boaz robbery. He said he expects the men to be charged with robbery and impersonating a police officer.
The men were apparently targeting Hispanics, Davis said. He said he is concerned there have been similar crimes that have gone unreported.
“A legitimate bounty hunter isn’t going to steal money,” Davis said.
