Sheriff: Suspects in Lancaster County auto break-ins tied to Regent Park

Three men arrested for a string of car break-ins in Lancaster County could be tied to similar break-ins last week across the county line in the Fort Mill area.

On Friday, the Lancaster County Sheriff’s Office announced the arrest of three North Carolina men for auto break-ins in the Legacy Park neighborhood earlier this week.

Sheriff’s deputies were called out early Monday to a car being broken into in a resident’s driveway. Further investigation turned up nine cars that were entered and rifled through, with various items stolen from several of them. Deputies say all of the cars had been left unlocked.

Three men who have since been arrested in North Carolina are now charged with those break-ins: Russell Fincham, 19, and Samuel Geoffrey Probst, 18, both of Matthews, N.C., and Parker Robinson Hilliard, 17, of Charlotte. All three are charged with nine counts of breaking into a motor vehicle and one count of conspiracy.

The men remain in custody in North Carolina on similar charges, Fincham and Probst in Union County and Hilliard in Mecklenburg County.

In a news release Friday, the sheriff’s office ties the men to another rash of break-ins last week in the Fort Mill area’s Regent Park neighborhood, when 52 cars were entered.

The York County Sheriff’s Office later released video footage of a suspect in those break-ins, and announced on Thursday that three men were being held in North Carolina in connection to the crimes, without identifying them by name.

The York County Sheriff’s Office could not confirm Friday the connection between these individuals and the Regent Park break-ins.

Among the items believed to tie all the multi-state auto break-ins together is a York County code enforcement officer’s badge found in the suspects’ possession, according to the Lancaster County Sheriff’s Office. That item is believed to have been stolen in the York County break-ins.

Lancaster County is investigating the men to see if they are connected to another series of break-ins in Legacy Park a week before the latest break-ins.

This story was originally published April 22, 2016 at 4:53 PM with the headline "Sheriff: Suspects in Lancaster County auto break-ins tied to Regent Park."