By Joe Johnson
A man was arrested this week in connection with multiple Athens storage unit burglaries in which numerous guns were stolen.
Giancarlo Arcesi, 37, whose last listed address was in Winterville was charged in warrants with three counts of second-degree burglary and one count each of theft by deception and criminal trespass/interference with property.
He was arrested Thursday afternoon, after a detective alerted a uniformed patrol officer that he was following a Toyota 4Runner that was being operated by Arcesi on Gaines School Road, according to an Athens-Clarke County police report.
The officer followed the vehicle when it turned into a McDonald’s, where he and another officer conducted a felony traffic stop – drawing their guns and having Arcesi walk backward to them to be handcuffed and taken into custody, according to an Athens-Clarke County police report.
The felony stop was conducted “due to the severity of the warrants and the involvement of multiple firearms,” an officer wrote in the report.
The warrants stemmed from an investigation by Detective Jonathan Simms of multiple burglaries of storage units here in thens-Clarke County, some of which had firearms stolen from the units.
Evidence was obtained linking Arcesi to those burglaries and search warrants have been served on multiple locations associated with Arcesi over the last few days and property from multiple storage units has been recovered, police said. Some of the stolen guns have been recovered, but there are known to be additional guns missing that Arcesi is believed to have already sold, according to police.
The Property Crimes Unit on Friday executed a warrant to search Arcesi's vehicle and detectives found additional guns that were suspected to have been stolen, police said.
According to police the investigation of the storage unit burglaries and Arcesi’s alleged involvement was active and ongoing.
Police asked for anyone who purchased a firearm from Arcesi, or had any information about the suspect and his alleged crimes to contact Detective Simms at (762) 400-7102 or jonathansimms@accgov.com.