CENTRAL — Pickens County sheriff’s deputies said a man was caught in the act of breaking into a Central plant last week.

According to a news release from chief deputy Creed Hashe, members of sheriff Rick Clark’s “community action team” were conducting a stakeout operation at the American House Spinning plant on Mauldin Road on Thursday night when a man entered the building holding a flashlight and wearing gloves.

The man, identified as Jerry Lee Eaton Jr., 25, of 707 Chestnut Ridge Road in Marietta, was also carrying “a large bag with various tools typically used by thieves during incidents of theft,” according to Hashe.

Hashe said deputies hidden inside the building took Eaton into custody without incident.

The stakeout operation was a result of several recent incidents where the facility had been broken into and various items had been stolen, Hashe said.

Eaton was charged with second-degree burglary and possession of burglary tools. Police also discovered he was wanted on a first-degree domestic violence charge for an incident that occurred in August. Eaton was being held at the Pickens County Detention Center on a combined $25,000 surety bond on Tuesday.

“This is a great example of the benefits that we have seen from the implementation of our community action team,” Clark said. “Being able to devote resources to citizen complaints, identify patterns of criminal activity and target areas where thieves tend to prowl has allowed us to arrest the individuals that continue to steal from the hard-working families that live in Pickens County.”

“We still have a lot of work to do, but as long as I’m the sheriff, we will continue to do everything that we can with the resources that we have. I pray for the ones that we arrest in hopes that they will turn their life around, but it is the reality of knowing that we do not catch every thief or drug dealer that keeps me awake at night.

“We are a long ways from being able to take that sigh of relief.”