Law enforcement officers are seeking the whereabouts of a 25-year-old Clay County inmate who allegedly stole a pickup while on work crew detail. On Tuesday, Roy Lockaby, 25, was part of a crew picking up trash near the Hayesville Post Office when he took off in a dark green, 2014 Ford pickup as the owner watched inside, according to Sheriff Bobby Deese.
The vehicle’s owner had been inside the post office at around 3:30 p.m. when he looked out the window and saw Lockaby, still in his orange detention center uniform, leaving the parking area in his pickup. Area authorities were alerted to be on the look out for Lockaby.
The owner had left his gun in the stolen pickup. Deese said the truck was recovered on Floyd Stalcup Road in Cherokee County around 6 p.m., but the gun was not in it. “This morning we learned where the gun is and it is not in Lockaby’s possession,” he said.
Officers looked for Lockaby until around 1 a.m. Wednesday, but were not successful in capturing him. “We were always minutes behind him,” Deese said, confirming that Lockaby has family in Cherokee County. Lockaby was being held here on a probation violation for Cherokee County. Deese said he might have been facing five or six months in jail, if that, but now he is facing “a bunch of charges.”
Warrants were being drawn up at press time. “He took advantage of the situation,” Deese said about Lockaby absconding from the work crew. “It was totally random.”