Man Accused Of Breaking Into Porter City Hall, Stealing City Truck In Custody

The man accused of breaking into Porter City Hall and stealing a city work truck has been arrested.

Raymond Hood was arrested about a month after the city of Porter had a work truck stolen from them. When deputies caught up to Hood, they found much more than just the truck.

Deputies arrested Hood in Tahlequah just over two weeks ago. Wagoner County Sheriff Chris Elliott said the stolen City of Porter work truck was found a few miles away from the city, when a city employee spotted the vehicle.

"He ran across a piece of property that he saw a truck down in there that somewhat matched the description of the vehicle that was stolen out of the town of Porter. But he noted that the doors had different colored doors on them," Elliott said.

Deputies said they found stolen campers, and another stolen truck at a property where Hood was living. Elliott said Hood tried to disguise the city truck and altered its VIN numbers with a metal stamp so it couldn't be identified, but deputies found a hidden VIN number on the truck that confirmed it belonged to the city of Porter.

Elliott said subsequent searches in neighboring Cherokee County found more stolen property.

"Ray Hood is a convicted felon. And so we found firearms inside of one of the stolen trailers that he had over there," Elliott said.

Hood could face federal charges for having the guns after a felony conviction.

Porter Mayor Sharon Payne said the news of the theft on December 2 shocked the town.

"It is so sad that we have these types of people running around," Payne said. "They felt violated, you know it put a scare into everybody."

Wagoner County Deputies said that night Hood also broke into the city water department and stole money.

Hood is currently being held in the Muskogee County Detention Center.