Information from the public led to the arrest of three people that were allegedly involved in a theft ring that was responsible for multiple burglaries in Valley Grande.

According to Sgt. John Hatfield, a criminal investigator with the Dallas County Sheriff’s Department, Melvin Coleman, 25; Creshanda Steele, 20; and Jessica Hall, 26, were all arrested.

Coleman was charged with three counts of third-degree burglary.

Steele and Hall were also charged with third-degree burglary, while Hall had an additional charge of third-degree receiving stolen property.

“We have other individuals that we will be charging today or tomorrow, so these three individuals are not the only people that are involved,” Hatfield said. “We’re in the process of issuing warrants at this time.”

According to Hatfield, Coleman was on probation for a previous assault charge as well as one of the other suspects that has not been arrested yet.

“We had five to six burglaries in a couple of week’s span,” said Chief Deputy Randy Pugh. “Sgt. Hatfield was getting information from citizens right off the bat, and he started piecing it together until he developed a description of a vehicle that we thought was involved.”

Pugh said officers searched for a vehicle matching the description and were able to provide Hatfield with much needed information.

“He took that information and did some surveillance on one of the individuals yesterday and then took him down when he left a local business yesterday,” Pugh said. “During that time, we had other officers and investigators in the drug unit go out and search different vehicles involved and some residences in Selma that were involved. We were able to retrieve several items that were taken, weapons and stuff like that.”

According to Pugh, officers recovered several long-barrel rifles and other items like video games.

“They were mostly stealing weapons. We’ve retrieved five or six guns already, and we’re hoping to get some more,” Pugh said. “They had already sold some and may have sold some that we may not get back.”

Pugh and Hatfield said they are trying to link the group of alleged burglaries to other homes that have been broken into over the past few weeks.

“We don’t know yet how many people are involved,” Pugh said. “We know for sure another major player that was involved, but there still may be some people that have received some property that we’re going after.”

Hatfield said it is pretty common to have a string of burglaries in an area after one occurs.

“You may have a burglary that is isolated, but usually, if you get one, you are probably going to get another one and another one in the same area until you develop suspects,” Hatfield said. “Typically they’ll hit a house and while they are out there they may say maybe we ought to hit this one next time.”

Pugh wanted to stress the importance of getting help from the public to solve this case.

“It shows how we depend on the public to help us, and we couldn’t have done it without the public,” Pugh said. “We had one individual that we actually retrieved a tape where one of his camera he had on his residence catches the side of the street, and we were able to get some information on it.”

Pugh also commended Hatfield for spending so much time on the investigation and the other officers that helped make the arrests.

Hall and Steele have bonded out of the Dallas County Jail, but Coleman is still in custody due to a state probation hold.

Pugh and Hatfield said they will continue investigating the case until the others are arrested.

“The ones involved know we are coming after them, so it is not like we’re giving up any secrets,” Pugh said. “We’re going to get them. We will catch them eventually. It may be today or it may be next week, but we are looking out for them.”