Bainbridge -Three Thomasville males, two 20-yearolds and a 16-year-old, who robbed the Kangaroo, wrecked their truck, and lost their bag of money when it flew into a tree, have been charged with armed robbery.

Bainbridge Public Safety Investigators Frank Green and Anthony Stubbs and GBI Special Agent Mike Walsingham made the arrests early Tuesday evening after working in Thomasville most of day putting all the pieces together.

The story told to investigators, Marty Barber, Joseph Rogers, and the juvenile were hanging out talking one day, and they decided to rob a store. They drove to Tallahassee for the robbery, but Joseph Rogers got scared.

They drove on to Bainbridge on their way home in Thomasville. They spotted the Kangaroo at Thomasville Highway and Whigham Dairy at about 1:45 a.m., and quickly decided that was the store to rob.

They pulled into Florence Drive, a block past the store, and Joseph Rogers took a sawed off shotgun and headed for the store. He ran back minutes later and jumped in saying, “Drive, I robbed the store.” The 16-year-old was driving, and they took off north, turning onto Old Whigham Road. They then crashed attempting to turn onto Black Jack Road.

They jumped out of the truck and ran down Black Jack Road. About 75-100 yards later, they left the road heading into a wooded area where they discarded their shotgun and a jacket. The robbers crossed over Highway 84 and hid in the woods where a friend came and picked them up.

The discarded jacket was discovered by the tracking dogs on Monday night. On Tuesday afternoon, Investigator James Dollar and Captain Ryan Wimberly searched the area along Black Jack Road and discovered the sawed-off shotgun.

In the crash, Marty Barber lost several teeth and suffered significant facial injuries.

Camilla - A Lowndes County jury awarded the family of 22-year-old Cleve Bostick of Camilla $1.5 million in a wrongful death suit arising out of Cleve Bostick’s death in Mexico Beach, FL. The trial lasted four days.

Cleve Bostick died on August 13, 2006, in Mexico Beach of injuries after being struck by a Ford F-150 truck driven by David Phelps, also of Camilla.

The defendant, David Phelps, is currently serving a four year prison sentence in Florida.

Cairo - Grady County paramedics now have one less ambulance to drive after an unknown motorist crashed head-on into a unit last week. Luckily, there was no patient in the ambulance, and the two paramedics on board were not injured.

Who was driving the 1999 Ford Focus when it crossed the center line of Highway 111 South near Pine Park Road and crashed into the ambulance remains a mystery.

The Georgia State Patrol was called to the scene and is investigating the case.

Billy Rathel, EMS director, says the ambulance was returning from a call where the patient refused treatment. The driver noticed the car coming across the center line towards them. They drifted to the right, but the other driver turned into the ambulance like they were turning into a driveway.

The medics were able to get out of the ambulance and went to check on the condition of anyone in the Focus, but found the car was empty; whoever had been inside had fled.

Donalsonville - On Sunday, January 3, agents with the Pataula Drug Task Force, Donalsonville Police and Seminole County Sheriff’s Deputies served a search warrant at the Speed Track convenience store located at 201 West 3rd Street, Donalsonville. During the search warrant, agents seized six video gaming machines and $2,146.00 in cash. The seizure was the result of an undercover operation targeting stores in Seminole and Early counties that were paying off illegally on the video slot machines. Ambalal Patel and Rasikbhai Patel were arrested and charged with commercial gambling.

Agents also served a search warrant on US Hwy. 84 in Jakin, U.S. Food Mart, on this same date and seized four video gaming machines and $607.00 in cash. Rita Patel and Vicas Bhakta were arrested and charged with commercial gambling.