Tyler Falconbury
SALINE CO.— A Harrisburg crim claimed he was merely taking a leak near someone’s home when he accidentally ended up trying to steal a satellite dish.
On May 24 at approximately 1:30 p.m. Deputy Chuck Welge was dispatched to 1135 Blue Hole Rd., Harrisburg, on a report of a burglary in progress with two suspects detained.
When the deputy arrived he spoke with Tim Rice, who lives at 1195 Blue Hole Rd.
Rice informed Deputy Welge that he was across the street and noticed two males at 1135 trying to remove a satellite dish and air conditioner from the side of the house.
Rice told Welge that he drove to the other residence in his vehicle and the two males ran toward the rear of the house, while two other individuals stayed in an SUV.
Rice said he instructed the pair in the SUV to pull into the driveway until police arrived, which they did.
The occupants in the SUV were identified by Welge as Austin R. Bayne, 22, of Cave-in-Rock, who was driving, with a passenger identified as 21-year-old Katie Williams.
When the pair was asked why they were at the residence, they told Welge that they were picking up cans with Christopher Chambers, 17 and Tyler Falconbury, 21, of 128 West Raymond St., Harrisburg.
Williams and Bayne said they both told Chambers and Falconbury not to go on the property.
They went on to tell Welge that Falconbury and Chambers went anyway and attempted to remove the satellite dish from the side of the house.
Williams and Bayne said when Rice pulled up and confronted Chambers and Falconbury they, wearing black shirts, both ran into a field at the rear of the residence.
When the owner of the property, identified as Christopher L. Price, 45, arrived, he requested that the subjects involved in the incident be arrested.
Several minutes later Chief Deputy Ken Clore spotted a pair of males, wearing black shirts, walking down the road and asked them their names.
The pair gave false names and claimed to be walking to their aunt’s house.
Later another deputy spotted two men, again wearing black shirts, walking and asked their names.
The pair lied again.
A third deputy, armed with a jailhouse mug shot of Falconbury, approached pair and asked them their names and when they lied, he proceeded to take the pair of would-be thieves into custody.
Falconbury and Chambers were transported to the county jail.
Chambers’ mother, Mary, was contacted and arrived at the county detention center where she gave permission for her minor son to be interviewed.
After he was read his rights, with mom signing as witness that he understood, the teen fessed up and said that the four were out collecting cans when Bayne asked him to steal the satellite from the side of the house.
He said that he and Falconbury were attempting just that when they heard someone coming and ran into the woods behind the residence so they wouldn’t be caught.
Chambers also admitted that he and Falconbury lied to all three deputies about who they were.
When he was interviewed, Falconbury said that the four were at his house at 128 West Raymond St., Harrisburg, when they decided to go into the countryside and pick up aluminum cans for extra money.
He said when they got to the Blue Hole Road residence, he needed to take a leak and went to the residence to relieve himself and when he did bumped the satellite dish, knocking a wire loose.
Falconbury said Bayne told him take the dish and hide the evidence and that’s what he was doing when Rice pulled up to see what he was doing and that’s when he and Chambers ran into the woods behind the residence.
Falconbury has at least one outstanding criminal case in Saline County from January 3, 2017 in which he is charged with Theft.
His White County criminal history includes a February 29, 2016 conviction for Criminal Trespass to vehicles, which earned him a sentence of 60 days in the county jail, conditional discharge for two years and $518 in fines and fees, of which he still owes $480.
He was also convicted in White County on August 29, 2016 on one count each of Retail Theft and Criminal Damage to Property, for which he was sentenced to 90 days in the county jail, conditional discharge for two years and was ordered to pay $1,137.77 in fines and fees, of which he has not paid a dime.
The unemployed Falconbury was formally charged with felony Theft and Obstruction of Identification.
Thus far nobody else has been charged in the case, as an adult anyway.
Cash bond in the Falconbury case was set at $500.