Man Arrested For Frederick’s Break-In

PRAIRIE GROVE — A Prairie Grove man is accused of breaking into Frederick’s One Stop and stealing money from the gaming machines in the gas station, according to a Prairie Grove police report.

Police arrested Michael Eastep, 31, on Aug. 28, in connection with felony commercial burglary, criminal mischief and theft of property, felony possession of a controlled substance (methamphetamine) with purpose to deliver and possession of drug paraphernalia.

Police received a call at 2:50 a.m. Aug. 27 about a burglary at the One Stop, the report said. Officers found the front door had been broken but the alarm did not sound.

Video footage from the incident, the report said, showed a suspect wearing an orange mask, dark long-sleeve shirt, blue jeans, gloves and dark colored boots with square toe. The suspect broke the glass of the front door, ran straight to the machines, emptied the money containers and ran out the back door in a little over a minute.

The owners of the store provided additional video during the day that showed Eastep in the store with two women, “acting strange,” according to the report. The women played the machines and then all three left in a white, older model pickup. It appeared Eastop was wearing boots similar to those of the suspect in the burglary video. Another video showed what appeared to be the same white truck driving slowly down the street near the store about six minutes before the break-in.

Police found that Eastep was on parole and had a search waiver on file. The report said Prairie Grove officers searched his residence and white truck. They found square-toed boots with what appeared to be small shards of glass, a pair of pants with shards of glass, shards of glass in the truck and a pair of bolt cutters, similar to the ones used to break the glass at the One Stop, according to the report.

During the search, police also found baggies containing methamphetamine, used needles and other drug paraphernalia.

Eastep was placed under arrest and taken to the police department. There he denied knowing anything about the incident and asked to speak to an attorney. He was then taken to Washington County Detention Center.

Eastep is being held on a $5,000 bond. He is set to appear in Circuit Court on Sept. 27

Eastep