Two people were arrested Thursday morning and another being sought for arrest after police say they found them carrying meth and stealing a Bobcat front loader from a Gainesville construction site.
The $40,000 Bobcat "looked just like mine,” one of the three, 39-year-old Donald Tanney, yelled about 5:30 a.m. as he ran from the construction site near O2B Kids on Southwest 37th Boulevard, according to a Gainesville police news release.
Meanwhile, Chris Pope, 24, and Chelsey Jackson, 23, were sitting in a Dodge Durango nearby with its driver-side window down.
Pope told the officer they were in Gainesville to pick up a Bobcat with Tanney.
Pope consented the officer to search the Durango, where the officer found a syringe that tested positive for methamphetamine in the passenger seat in which Tanney was sitting.
Jackson was sitting in the backseat, and was found to have a container at the bottom of her left shoe that held a clear plastic bag with 1.7 grams of methamphetamine in it after she consented to a search by the officer.
She is currently on probation in Marion County for possession of methamphetamine.
Tanney and Jackson were both charged for grand theft and possession of meth, but Pope was released on the scene because officers did not have enough evidence to charge him at the time.
Following interviews with Tanney and Jackson, officers obtained enough information to charge Tanney for grand theft.