Columbus police catch suspect in Cooper Creek Park car break-ins

Police say they’ve finally caught up with a suspect wanted in a 2014 car burglary at Columbus’ Cooper Creek Park, where residents going there to run reported a series of such break-ins.

Tavaris Scoggins was in Columbus Recorder’s Court facing multiple charges Friday, one related to his escaping police when they tried to arrest him for a car burglary on Oct. 5, 2014, officers said.

Cpl. Jacob Cook testified that authorities were getting repeated reports that park users' cars were being burglarized after they parked there to exercise, and the victims’ stolen credit cards were being used at the same Victory Drive gas station.

The woman whose car was ransacked that October day in 2014 told police a white Lincoln Towncar had pulled up just as she was leaving to run, Cook said, so police went to the Summit gas station where victims’ credit cards previously had been used, to look for suspects.

There an officer spotted a 1994 Lincoln Towncar and tried to stop it, but the driver sped away, and police momentarily lost track of it, Cook said. Later an officer found it parked on Wedgewood Court, with the victims’ stolen gift cards and other items inside it, he said.

The car also contained “numerous” flathead screwdrivers investigators suspect were used in car break-ins, as the victim’s car that day had a damaged window frame thieves had bent back to get inside, Cook said.

Also police discovered the victim’s credit card had been used twice at the 2218 Victory Drive gas station, once for a $37.61 purchase and then for $63.25, Cook said.

Scoggins, 36, later wound up in the Leesburg State Prison in Leesburg, Ga. He was charged with the Columbus car break-in on Jan. 20 and booked into the Muscogee County Jail at 11:14 a.m. that day, according to jail records.

He is charged with two counts of credit card fraud and one each of second-degree burglary, possessing tools for committing a crime, fleeing police, failing to exhibit a car tag and misdemeanor possession of marijuana.

Judge Julius Hunter found probable cause to send the case to Muscogee Superior Court. Scoggins’ bonds totaled $8,150, according to jail records.