Local Man Faces Variety of Felonies After Attempted Truck Theft in Gruene

(New Braunfels, TX) --  A New Braunfels man is being held at the Comal County Jail on a variety of charges, including aggravated robbery, after he allegedly tried to steal a pickup truck in broad daylight from the main parking lot in Gruene. 

The incident began around 5:30 Sunday afternoon when a man went back to his yellow Ford F-350 pickup truck parked in the 12-hundred block of Gruene Road, across from Gruene Hall. 

When he went to open the door, the engine started, and he found a man behind the wheel.  The suspect then put the truck in reverse, sharply turned the wheel, and hit the gas, causing the truck to sweep hard to one side, pinning the truck’s owner against a vehicle parked next to it and causing the pickup to hit another truck parked behind it, a white Ford F-350 4-door dually.  

Undeterred, the owner of the truck then began fighting with the man behind the wheel, who eventually gave up and ran from the scene.  New Braunfels Police were called and were given a description of the suspect, and an officer spotted the man not far away, in the 17-hundred block of Hunter Road, in the area behind Adobe Verde restaurant.  The officer watched as the man got into a waiting car with two other people inside.  When the officer contacted the man, he allegedly gave a false name, and while talking to the officer he continued to reach into his pants pocket, so he was placed under arrest.  That’s when the officer discovered a screwdriver in his pocket.  He was then placed in the back of a patrol car, where officers observed him breaking a key that he had apparently concealed and that they eventually linked to the white Ford dually that was hit in the earlier incident.  That truck was then identified as a stolen vehicle out of the San Marcos area. 

32-year old Marcus Dewayne Pinson (above) was then taken to the Comal County Jail, charged with 1st degree felony aggravated robbery, 3rd degree felony tampering with evidence, unauthorized use of a motor vehicle (which is a state jail felony), and it was found that he had a warrant out of the Dallas County Sheriff’s Office for Criminal Trespass, and so he was also charged with failure to ID a fugitive with the intent to give false information.  Pinson was then taken to the Comal County Jail where bond was set at 65-thousand dollars for those local crimes, and he’s being held without bond on the warrant out of Dallas County.

By the way, the victim in Sunday’s incident was injured slightly during the initial truck crash, and was treated by EMS at the scene. 

As for Pinson, New Braunfels Police believe he may have been involved in several other crimes reported that day here in New Braunfels.  There were several pieces of recovered property found inside of the truck he was alleged to have stolen out of San Marcos that matched descriptions of property stolen during vehicle burglaries reported earlier in the day in the 400 block of Mission Hills Run, in the area behind the new HEB.  And around 11am Sunday morning, just a few hours before the incident in Gruene, a man matching Pinson’s description, and driving a white truck matching the description of the stolen truck out of San Marcos, was seen fleeing the scene of an apparent home burglary in the 50 block of Mission Drive.  In that case a home alarm went off when a suspect tried to kick in the front door.  The elderly homeowner was actually home at the time and was able to give the description to police, who are now investigating whether additional charges can be filed against Pinson for his apparent role in those other crimes.

And one other note from that incident on Sunday:  There was one other arrest made of a man inside the waiting car in the parking lot behind Adobe Verde.  19-year old Caleb Frank Crandell of New Braunfels was apparently in that car and was arrested on an outstanding local warrant for theft.  He also was taken to the Comal County Jail was released on Monday after posting a 2-thousand dollar bond.