Wanted:

By Cindy Landrum  

AUGUST 26, 2010 10:36 a.m. (0)

“Is he worth some money?” the voice on the other end of the phone asked Tony Lee, the coordinator of Crime Stoppers of Greenville County.

“He” was Steven Edward Janes, a 49-year-old Greenville man Lee had put on the organization’s “Most Wanted” list four days earlier.

Janes had racked up 19 charges stemming back to the beginning of April, when he began working as a handyman for a Greenville woman. He is accused of taking jewelry, electronics and money from her home. And police say he broke into another Greenville home in May and made off with more than $2,400 in money and jewelry.

After Lee answered yes, the caller told him Janes was in Laurens County at a business near Clinton. The anonymous caller told Lee what Janes was wearing and, after getting a tip number from Lee necessary to claim a reward, hung up.

Twenty-five minutes later, the man who the Greenville County Sheriff’s Office’s Fugitive Task Force had been looking for everywhere to no avail was in custody.

Janes was the third person on the Crime Stoppers of Greenville County’s Most Wanted list arrested in a week, Lee said.

But Lee said there is no shortage of people to take their places.

“We’ve got tens of thousands of outstanding warrants,” he said. “The people who make the board are the ones we’re looking for the hardest. We need for the people to help us by being our eyes and ears.”

Since Crime Stoppers of Greenville County started in 1983, more than a quarter of a million dollars has been paid out in rewards, 25,000 tips have been phoned in, 2,280 arrests have been made and 7,060 cases solved.

In 2009, every third call resulted in a case being cleared, Lee said.

Last year, 1,216 tips were received, 188 arrests made and 384 cases cleared. Tips to the Crime Stoppers telephone number – 23-CRIME – resulted in the recovery of nearly $7,000 in stolen property, and  the seizure of more than $94,000 in contraband and nearly $38,000 in cash.

One hundred thirty-five rewards totaling $16,650 were paid out. The money comes from an annual fundraiser golf tournament.

“There’s a wealth of information out there,” Lee said.

All of Crime Stoppers’ Most Wanted are sought for violent crimes, serious property crimes such as burglary and arson, drug charges or for skipping out on court hearings, he said. They are people the Greenville County’s Sheriff’s Office’s Fugitive Task Force  has had no luck finding.

“With a lot of  these people, there’s not enough room on the board to list all of their charges,” Lee said. “We don’t put people with just bad checks or petty larcenies on the list. That would diminish it.”

Lee usually leaves the people on the list until they are caught. He does on occasion take somebody down to make room for a person who is more dangerous or wanted for a more violent crime.

The largest Crime Stoppers’ Most Wanted board hangs in the LEC. Usually, a dozen mug shots are on it for visitors to see. This week, however, the board has three empty spaces because of the arrests made over the past few days.

“There’s a wealth of information here. There’s a wealth of information in the schools. There’s a wealth of information at the detention center,” he said. “People just have to know we’re looking for them.”

Sometimes, people appear on the list for just days. Other times, they linger for years.

“You almost wonder sometimes if these people are dead because if they are still around here, somebody knows. If they’ve fled the area, somebody knows,” said Lee, who said the furthest away somebody on the Most Wanted list was apprehended was in Washington state. Somebody saw the person’s picture on the Most Wanted board in the LEC and called Crime Stoppers with an address.

Quite often, Lee gets a call from the LEC’s desk saying an upset parent is out front with their son or daughter who is on the Most Wanted list.

“It happens quite a few times,” he said. “Usually, it’s the mother who has dragged in her son.”

There are “Most Wanted” boards in the Greenville County Courthouse, family court and the Sheriff’s Office’s north and south command headquarters. The list is also online on the Crime Stoppers website, Lee said.

Soon, Crime Stoppers will be able to receive tips via text message, he said. Tips can already be made online.

23-Crime is answered 24-hours a day, seven-days a week, Lee said. When a caller calls, they are given a computer-generated number. The call is not recorded or traced and the caller is not asked for their name.

Callers can check if an arrest has been made in the case using their number. The Crime Stoppers board meets once a month to approve rewards. Once a reward is approved, a check is written to that number and taken to the bank. The caller has 30 days to claim the money by endorsing the check on the back with the tip number, Lee said.

“It is completely anonymous,” he said.

But Crime Stoppers have people who call every month, he said.

Greenville County’s Most Wanted includes two men wanted on drug charges, several for robberies and several more for failure to appear in court or bench warrants.