Longview Police Detectives have scored a victory in the battle against car burglars, arresting known vehicle burglary suspect Clifton Craver.

Early yesterday morning, an unknown person in a silver, late model Chevrolet Monte Carlo burglarized a 2007 Ford Explorer that was parked in the parking lot of Long Park while the victim exercised on the walking trail. The victim had left her purse in the Explorer and the suspect had broken out the front
passenger side window, stealing the purse that contained cash, credit cards and the victim’s social security card.

Officers immediately canvassed the area and issued a City wide alert to other
officers that gave a detailed description of the Monte Carlo. Photos of the Monte Carlo were obtained from the surveillance system that monitors the Long Park parking lot and a silver Monte Carlo that matched the description of the suspect vehicle was located at a residence that Craver is known to frequent.

Detectives from the Longview Police Special Investigations and Apprehension
(SIA) Unit, working in conjunction with the Kilgore Police Department, located
Craver driving the silver Monte Carlo in Kilgore and he was stopped for traffic
violations. During the stop, detectives located a GPS unit on the dashboard of
Craver’s vehicle that was stolen in a motor vehicle burglary at the Sports Page in Longview on February 23rd.

SIA Detectives then obtained a search warrant for Craver’s residence in Kilgore.
Once inside, they located items from numerous vehicle burglaries that occurred
across Longview. These items included the victim’s property from the Long Park
vehicle burglary, property from motor vehicle burglaries that occurred at the
Court House Athletic Club and a handgun that was stolen from a vehicle burglary
that occurred at the Longview Lanes bowling alley.

Clifton Craver, date of birth 3-10-1983 of 11707 CR 167 Kilgore, has been
arrested and charged with two counts of burglary of a motor vehicle (Class A
misdemeanor), credit card abuse (State jail felony) and theft of a firearm (State jail felony). He is currently being held in the Kilgore City Jail and is set to be arraigned this morning.

The investigation is open and ongoing.