Man arrested for allegedly harassing women

James Thomas Garrett, 70, of 791 Hwy. 72 East, was charged with harassing phone calls, stalking and two counts of criminal trespass after a Colbert store clerk reported that he had left three voice messages on her cell phone calling himself “the candy man” and stating he wanted her to come to his residence and have sex with him.

According to the report, one of the messages stated, “(Name withheld) this is James Garrett ‘the candy man,’ I was hoping you would come see me today. You can park in the backyard and use the back door. It will be open for you. The house is a mess but the bed is good and clean. I will show you a good time and &*+! you to death.”

Officer Michael Moore, who noted he was familiar with Garrett, instructed the woman not to answer the calls and if he came back to her place of business to ask him to leave or call 9-1-1 for an officer. She was also advised of the TPO (temporary protection order) process.

The sheriff’s office has had other complaints on Garrett in regard to similar incidents. One such recent incident involved Garrett allegedly leaving notes on a female’s car, asking her to come to his residence to have sex, according to Moore’s report. The woman said he had been coming to her place of work and had left two notes in the last month on her vehicle about coming to his house to have sex and telling her that the back door would be unlocked for her. Moore stated that Garrett has allegedly been seen parked in his truck beside her vehicle in the parking lot. This victim took out a TPO against him.

There was also another incident involving Madison County EMS, where they had reported an incident regarding his actions with them.

In December, Garrett was arrested after he allegedly exposed himself repeatedly to his neighbors through the windows of his home. At that time he was charged with three counts of public indecency/indecent exposure (felony after two prior convictions).

According to the incident report regarding that arrest, the sheriff’s office received several complaints about Garrett standing in front of his windows unclothed so his neighbors could see him. When officers questioned Garrett about the complaints, he said that he sleeps unclothed and that he walks around his residence unclothed and that he “can’t help that people look through his windows.”

But two neighbors told officers that they had spotted him standing in his window, naked, looking at them. One of the complainants stated that he was also “fondling himself with one hand and waving at her with the other.” She also said that he would stand in the window naked when she puts her young daughter on the bus.

Another neighbor on the other side, who had made previous complaints about Garrett, stated that he constantly stood in the window naked where she could see him and that he had come onto her property and left a note on the door “wanting her to come over and be friends.”

Other incidents on file last week at the sheriff’s office included:

•A resident of Ty Cobb Healthcare in Comer was reportedly found wandering in a hay field on Holly Creek Church Road. According to the incident report, a homeowner called to report a barefoot man who appeared disoriented in his hayfield. When the officer arrived, the man told him that he had walked from Commerce, but that he didn’t know why. The nursing home was contacted and they discovered that the man was missing from the facility. The man had difficulty breathing while in the patrol car on the way back to the nursing home, and EMS was called to meet them. The nurse on staff said the man was last accounted for at 5:15 p.m. when dinner was served, and that his ankle monitor did not alarm as it should when he left the facility. The officer noted that alarm did go off as the man was going back inside the nursing home.

•Financial transaction card frauds were reported on Musket Ridge and Coyal Strickland Road.

•A woman’s wheelchair was reportedly stolen from outside her mobile home at a trailer park on Hwy. 29 South.

•Copper wiring thefts continue around the county. Theft of copper wire was reported at Food Mart on Hwy. 98; a chicken house on Donald Smith Road; a rental mobile home on Audie Porterfield Road; a Windstream Communications remote system on Rogers Church Road; an a/c unit on Stone Ridge Drive and an a/c unit on Stapler Road.

•A woman allegedly shoplifted two curtain rods from the Dollar General Store on Glenn Carrie Road last week and left in a blue Hyandai Elantra with tag number BRN 0476.