Burglar stole cigarettes then tried to sell them door-to-door nearby, Coast police say
In the early morning hours on Thursday, a man broke into a gas station on Government Street in Ocean Springs and filled a duffel bag with Newport and Marlboro Red cigarettes, plus a few vapes.
Later that day, Ocean Springs police got a tip that a man was knocking on doors in a nearby neighborhood, trying to sell the cigarettes.
Detective Alex Nandin got a warrant to search the man’s home, and found “a large amount of cigarettes and vape devices,” the same items stolen from the Bao Wow convenience store.
On Friday, the police department announced the man, Zachary Joseph Hunter, and a woman named McKayla Kisela had been arrested at the home.
Bao Nguyen, the store’s owner, described the theft in a Facebook post on Thursday. Nguyen wrote that the burglar had busted a hole in the building’s wall, also damaging a water pipe.
Security camera footage showed he then came back around 3:40 a.m. to crawl through the hole and steal the cigarettes, vapes, and a few other items, according to Nguyen.
“Just happy no one was hurt,” he wrote. “The items can be replaced.”
On Friday, Nguyen declined an interview request.
“We believe OSPD have it taken care of,” he wrote in a text message.
Both Hunter and Kisela are being held at the Jackson County Adult Detention Center. Hunter’s bond was set at $100,000 and Kisela’s at $50,000.
Hunter was also on federal probation for commercial burglary.
In 2017, Hunter, then 19 years old, was accused of stealing firearms from an Ocean Springs pawn shop. He and another 19-year-old admitted the theft in an interview with a federal agent, according to an affidavit by an Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agent.
