Mayor charged with theft after damaging excavator

NASHVILLE, Ga. — A south Georgia mayor has been arrested after a contractor alleged the mayor used an excavator without permission and damaged it.

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation said Friday that it had arrested Nashville Mayor Taylor Scarbrough on theft by conversion and theft of services charges.

Scarbrough turned himself in at the Berrien

County jail and was released.

GBI said Scarbrough used James Hobbs’ excavator without permission on Aug. 17 and caused “significant damage” to the machine. Video shows some parts of the excavator are heavily dented. Hobbs values the damage at $12,000.

WALB-TV reported Hobbs was working for Scarbrough and left his excavator on the mayor’s land overnight. An incident report says a worker noted the next day that the equipment had been damaged. Hobbs said Scarbrough didn’t have permission to use the equipment.

“I’m just glad the mayor is hopefully getting what he deserves and maybe he is punished and can pay back and fix the problems he has caused,” Hobbs told WALB-TV. “It has slowed me down with work and everything else.”

Scarbrough wrote in an Aug. 18 Facebook post that he did have permission. He says he damaged the machine, but said Hobbs is being unreasonable by not giving Scarbrough more time to file a claim asking for his homeowners insurer to pay for the damage.

“Unfortunately, Mr. Hobbs refused to give me 24 hours to hear from my insurance adjuster and demanded that I give him $9,500 cash or he would make me look bad on social media,” Scarbrough wrote.