A suspected pipe thief who claimed he was an escapee from the Cass County Jail was arrested last week in Longview.

Captain Scott Sartain, public information officer for the Cass County Sheriff’s Office, said the suspect, Gary Linn Wilson, 56, of Longview, has been charged with aggravated robbery.  Sartain said Wilson was allegedly trying to steal oil field pipe and diesel fuel Jan. 18 on FM 125 near Linden-Kildare high School.  “When oil field company employees caught Wilson at the well site, they blocked the entrance and exit and he drove his truck into the woods,” Sartain said. “They chased him, and he picked up a limb and started acting like he was going to hit them with this limb, which is the rea son for the aggravated robbery charge.”

According to the Longview News-Journal, Morris County has two cases pending against Wilson:  an arrest warrant for criminal trespass and a previous arrest for theft of copper wire from a Bowie-Cass Electric Cooperative substation site in Morris County.  A Cass County warrant for Wilson’s arrest was issued Feb. 15. 

Wilson remains in the Morris County Jail charged with theft over $1,500 and less than $20,000.

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