<p>Police found merchandise and items stolen from Franklin and other central Indiana communities when they tracked down the semi-trailer stolen from a Walmart parking lot.</p>
<p>Michael Rigdon, 45, Morgantown, was arrested earlier this month on five felony theft charges, possession of marijuana and possession of paraphernalia.</p>
<p>Franklin Police Department detectives found $113,000 worth of stolen items on Rigdon’s 16-acre property, 7311 W. County Road 50 S., in Morgantown, some of which were reported stolen in other central Indiana counties.</p>
<p>Police used witness statements, transaction information and surveillance video to determine who stole a large black trailer belonging to Vera Bradley, a luggage and handbag design company, that was parked outside the Franklin Walmart store. The trailer was reported stolen on Sept. 3.</p>
<p>Store surveillance video from Sept. 2 shows Rigdon enter the Walmart parking lot in a truck towing a trailer, go shopping at the store with a woman and two kids, load purchased items into the trailer, and stop for about 20 seconds beside the Vera Bradley trailer on his way out of the parking lot, according to a Franklin Police Department report.</p>
<p>Rigdon returned about an hour later to the parking lot without a trailer attached to his truck, hooked the Vera Bradley trailer up, removed blocks from the tires and drove off, the police report said.</p>
<p>Police served a search warrant at Rigdon’s house on Sept. 13, and located the Vera Bradley event pod, which was inside the stolen trailer. It was damaged due to someone trying to remove the company’s logos. Police later found the large black trailer when Rigdon told them where it was.</p>
<p>He had taken it to a local car shop. The owner of the shop told police Rigdon also gave him a John Deere gator in exchange for work on his car, according to the report. The gator was reported stolen in Hancock County, the report said.</p>
<p>Police also found on Rigdon’s property a Massey Ferguson front-loader tractor that was also stolen in Hancock County and two Exmark lawnmowers that were stolen in Indianapolis, according to the report.</p>
<p>Police found 1 gram of marijuana and a smoking pipe during a search of the house, the report said.</p>
<p>Rigdon was released from the Johnson County jail on $4,600 bond.</p>
