Full Notification

The Polk County Sheriff’s Office had received multiple reports of residences being broken into along Highway 9 South over the past month. Detectives began looking into the reports and following up on leads as they developed.
While on routine patrol, officers located an abandoned Ford Pickup truck pulling a trailer on the side of the road. The trailer matched the description of one reported stolen from Derbyshire. The Ford Pickup was later found to have been reported stolen from the Mill Spring area. Investigators were contacted to process the vehicle.
Information was obtained that led Investigators to various locations in Polk County and Landrum, S.C. where stolen items had been stashed or sold. Stolen property included items such as chainsaws, leaf blowers, sprayers, wrenches, drills, a four wheeler, and a Kawasaki mule (UTV).
Investigators served a search warrant in the Green Creek area, and located a number of missing items that had been reported stolen. While enroute to a follow up on the reported larcenies, Investigators initiated a traffic stop that led to the recovery of the missing four wheeler.
After an extensive investigation, Polk County Detectives were able to charge Benjamin Damacus Byars from Mill Spring for the reported incidents.
Benjamin Damacus Byars (38 year old white/male) of Mill Spring, was charged with the following: One count of First Degree trespass, three counts of Felony breaking and entering, three counts of felony larceny, one count of felony larceny of a motor vehicle, and one count for resisting arrest. Byars was reported to have moved to the Mill Spring area in January of 2017, after being released from a facility in Georgia. Byars has an extensive criminal history; to include: convictions of forgery, burglary, kidnapping, armed robbery, and auto theft.
Byars was given a $100,000 dollar secured bond for the above listed charges and is currently incarcerated in the Polk County Jail awaiting trial.