Arrest made in Early December Case

The Oconee County Sheriff’s Office arrested a Seneca man this week on charges after responding to a suspicious vehicle call earlier this month, explains Oconee County Sheriff’s Office Public Information Officer Jimmy Watt.  “32-year-old Larry Ulmer Clark, Jr. of 733 East Main Street in Seneca was booked into the Oconee County Detention Center on charges of possession of tools capable of being used in a crime.  A deputy responded on December 4 to Clemson Four Wheel Drive Center around 5:17am on Highway 123 between Seneca and Clemson.  When the officer arrived, he observed a dark colored Honda to the left of the store that was backed in close to the chain linked fence that surrounds the store.  According to the incident report, no one was in the vehicle and after the officer ran the tag, he found that it was registered to an individual out of Salem.  The officer did not find anyone inside the store or in the vehicle and all doors and windows were secured at the store.  However, an officer observed a dip in the barb wire fence where someone may have climbed over. A deputy then parked across the road from the business, where 10 minutes later they noticed the vehicle parked at Clemson 4 Wheel Drive Center leaving the business and heading towards Seneca.  The officer performed a traffic stop at the intersection of Shiloh Road and Carson Road near Seneca. According to the incident report, the driver of the vehicle appeared to be nervous and shaking.  The driver told the deputy that he had been in the woods looking for his phone that he claimed that he had lost the previous day four wheeling.  Clark was asked by deputies to search the vehicle, whereupon he gave officers consent to search the vehicle.  Deputies discovered a pair of gloves, wire cutters, a hammer, and a small pry bar in the passenger side floor board of the vehicle, according to the incident report.  Clark told deputies after being questioned about the items that he used those items for work and he had been a home all night and just left his house to search for the lost phone.  Deputies did find a receipt in his car for a pack of cigarettes that had been bought earlier that morning.  Clark was allowed to leave by deputies and the case was referred to investigators.  As the course of the investigation continued, an arrest warrant was issued on Monday for Clark.  The warrants states that Clark had “in his possession gloves, a hammer, and a small pry bar, all instruments commonly used in the commission of burglaries and under circumstances evincing an intent to use, being that his car was parked behind Clemson 4 Wheel Drive Center at approximately 5:30am when the business was closed, where he concealed himself to avoid detection.”  Clark was released from the Oconee County Detention Center on a $10,000 personal recognizance bond.