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Students charged in center theft

• A security key card, granting access to all of the facility's dorm rooms, was found but never reported stolen, reports show.

J.D. Sumner

ALBANY — At least five Turner Job Corps students have been charged in connection with a series of burglaries of the Schilling Avenue facility, police reports show.

Zackary Gossett, 18; Brandon Mays, 20, and three juveniles have been arrested in connection with the thefts of items that include clothing and electronics from Turner Job Corps, according to Albany Police Department reports.

Gossett and Mays were each charged Thursday with theft by receiving stolen property and issued $1,000 bonds, jail officials say. As of Thursday evening the two were still in the Dougherty County Jail.

The arrests come after Turner Security Chief Bobby Johnson, a former Albany police chief, was notified that a dozen lockers at the facility had been entered and various items were missing.

According to the police report, one of the juvenile suspects also had a key card from a member of the Turner security staff that would allow entry to any dorm room at the facility. The key card, which belonged to Philson Lee, was never reported missing or stolen.

The report shows that Johnson and his staff found stolen items in at least four different dorm rooms and items that didn’t belong to residents in a total of six rooms.

A value on the stolen clothing and electronics wasn’t listed in the report, but the case has been turned over to the Albany Police Department’s investigative division.

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