In the early morning hours of August 8, 2025, Deputies Dakota Watson and Patrick Purdy were patrolling the Upper End of Loudon County when they noticed a suspicious truck parked at the entrance of the Eleven Estates subdivision. The truck was running in an unusual location, and when the deputies turned around to investigate, it quickly sped away.
The driver, later identified as Alex Townsend, attempted to evade deputies by turning abruptly onto a dead-end street off Cusick Circle. Deputies conducted a traffic stop and immediately noticed Townsend was out of breath and sweating heavily. Several bags of tools were sitting in the bed of the truck.
During the stop, deputies discovered an unopened Amazon package in the bed of the truck that did not belong to Townsend. Deputies contacted the rightful owner, who confirmed Townsend had no permission to have the package. Multiple wallets containing other people’s IDs and credit cards were also recovered.
Townsend was placed under arrest. Over the next several hours, Loudon County E-911 received multiple calls from residents reporting their vehicles had been burglarized and items were missing. Many of the stolen items were identified in Townsend’s truck. In total, the value of property recovered was upwards of $5,000, all of which is being returned to the rightful owners.
The Criminal Investigation Division and Detective Sergeant Marty Branam obtained a search warrant, gathered evidence, and worked to return stolen property to the rightful owners.
As a result, Alex Townsend was charged with:
4 Counts of Theft of Property
4 Counts of Burglary
Thanks to the proactiveness and watchful eyes of Deputies Watson and Purdy, and the follow-up work of our Criminal Investigation Division, stolen property was returned to residents and another suspect was taken off the streets.
