Investigator Telisha Gibson said she felt an adrenaline rush while she hid behind a large pile of electronic merchandise in a warehouse in rural northwest Carroll County. Gibson was staking out the property late Saturday after having gotten a tip the building had been broken into the night before and the previous Wednesday.

“There were a number of flat-screen televisions stolen and the informant also told me that some of the offenders were going back that night, but they didn’t know the time,” Gibson said.

She contacted the warehouse owners, located the property and called additional officers to assist with the stakeout.

Gibson, Cpl. Lee Maxwell, Investigator Harold Bramlett and Deputy Scott Young waited in their respective hiding places for nearly three hours until they heard a noise outside of the door just before someone entered the warehouse.

“There were no lights at all,” Gibson said. “We heard someone gain entry and then a flashlight cleared the area inside the door.”

The officers said they were able to remain concealed until they used a flashlight to illuminate the subject who was armed with a large knife.

“I had a sense of fear when it started going down from a culmination of not knowing the number of people involved or if they were armed,” Gibson said.

The subject, later identified as 20-year-old Jarrod Mattingly of Tallapoosa, attempted to flee the scene but was apprehended and arrested, according to the Sheriff’s Office.

As officers began clearing the perimeter, they discovered a female armed with an aluminum baseball bat hiding under a tractor-trailer, according to Bramlett. The woman, Brittany Reeves, 20, of Tallapoosa, was also apprehended and arrested.

“It was quite an experience,” Bramlett said. “I’d never been involved with one of these that didn’t fall through so I can say it was a life-changing experience.”

Gibson said she realized there was no car onsite and immediately began questioning the subjects about how they intended to leave the scene.

“We began doing a brief search of Mattingly’s cell phone and we were able to see that the driver was going to be contacted via text,” Gibson said.

Gibson then sent a text message to the unidentified driver which read, “We’re done, pick us up.”

The driver responded with “I’m at the same stop sign.”

The officers set up surveillance at both stop signs near the area and stopped Sue Morgan, 42, of Tallapoosa who was in the car with her 14-year-old daughter.

Morgan admitted to being involved with burglaries Friday and Saturday and also reportedly told Gibson that her daughter had sent the text messages, according to the Sheriff’s Office report.

The three suspects were taken to Carroll County jail and detained for questioning. During the interview process, police identified two additional suspects, 32-year-old David Carter of Tallapoosa and 31-year-old Shane Stephens of Fruithurst, Ala.

Gibson said she was able to contact Carter and convince him to bring one of the stolen flat screens to her at an undisclosed location. Carter was then arrested.

“We do stakeouts all the time and more times than not, it never comes through,” Gibson said. “So this was a rush.”

Stephens, who introduced the group to the warehouse, is still at large, according to Gibson.

“He was a former employee for the company who may have been stealing from the warehouse before he was terminated,” Gibson said. “We’ve recovered at least one television that was taken before these three burglaries.”

So far, authorities have recovered 10 flat-screen televisions and two projectors valued at $10,000 total.

Mattingly was charged with three counts of burglary, Morgan was charged with two counts of burglary, Reeves was charged with two counts of burglary and Carter was charged with one count of burglary, according to the Sheriff’s Office report.

“Obviously this group of officers did an excellent job,” Sheriff’s Office Capt. Shane Taylor said. “It is always exciting when we catch criminals in the act.”