CROSSVILLE DUO BUSTED IN WALMART HEIST
On October 30, 2025, Crossville Police responded to a shoplifting call at the Obed Plaza Walmart, where a loss-prevention officer provided photos of two bearded males—one in a black beanie and green hoodie, the other in a light cap and blue jacket—loading a generator, boots, and other merchandise into a black van without paying.
Officers detained Michael Young and Chace Thompson as they exited the store, read them their Miranda rights, and obtained admissions that they had stolen the generator and other items. A probable-cause search of the van (registered to Young) uncovered the stolen generator ($802.41 in merchandise tied to Young, $186.13 to Thompson), unpaid food items, a stolen Taurus G3 9mm pistol (taken earlier from a county residence), an un-serialized Winchester 12-gauge shotgun seized for investigation, brass knuckles (illegal in Tennessee), 1.62 g of marijuana, and half a Hydrocodone pill—both drugs claimed by Thompson.
Store video confirmed the pair “skip-scanned” items at self-checkout and walked past all points of sale. Young and Thompson gave conflicting stories about the pistol’s origin—Young first blaming his father-in-law, later Thompson; Thompson claiming he bought it from a toothless “Billy” in Tansi—prompting both to be charged with theft of the firearm.
Young was booked for theft of merchandise, theft of property (pistol), and possession of a prohibited weapon; Thompson for theft of merchandise, simple possession of Schedule II and VI drugs.
All stolen Walmart goods were recovered and returned, firearms and narcotics entered into evidence, and the case referred to county investigators for the unsolved pistol burglary.
