FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

March 25, 2020

WALTON COUNTY, Fla— Canine teams track two burglary suspects more than four miles through the woods Tuesday.

Caleb Christopher Sanders, 19, and Michael Allen Lawson, 23, were booked into the Walton County Jail on a slew of charges after they burglarized a home off High Lonesome Road Tuesday morning.

They were later spotted by the victim, who called Walton County Sheriff’s Office around 4 pm when they saw the two men pulling into the post office parking lot on 331 S in Freeport.

The car, a red SUV, was in the wood line near the Freeport Post Office when deputies arrived.

Deputies followed their track from the vehicle and located a stolen chainsaw thrown in a bush and Sanders’ blue t-shirt and Lawson’s iPhone were nearby on the ground.

Walton and Holmes County Corrections K-9 teams responded and tracked and located the two suspects approximately one mile south of Freeport High School.  The track was a total of four miles in the woods.

Sanders was located with a loaded 9mm handgun in his backpack.

The owner of the SUV the two men were driving confirmed the suspects did not have permission to take the vehicle.

Both were charged with grand theft auto, burglary of an unoccupied structure during a state of emergency and grand theft.