Michael Carson, 43, of Hillsboro, was arrested and charged with criminal damaging, a second-degree misdemeanor Feb. 4 in connection with damaged windows at Tallboyz Hobby & Swap Shop and Bobabarica’s in Hillsboro.

“They’ve had some issues over the past few months with some criminal damaging and somebody busting the windows out or causing damage to the windows, so we took a couple reports on it and were able to locate who was responsible and hold them accountable,” said Sgt. Aaron Reynolds of the Hillsboro Police Department.

Officers responding to a complaint of suspicious activity in the North High Street area and North East Street area found Carson walking in that location.

“He had a warrant for his arrest for a failure to appear for a different violation through the Hillsboro Municipal Court, so when they arrested him he was already a person of interest on our investigation for the windows, and when they arrested him they found a slingshot and some nuts and bolts in his pocket, which we recovered nuts and bolts from the swap shop where the glass was broken, so that kind of helped us tie it together,” said Reynolds.

“We interviewed him at the jail and he confessed to causing the damages due to some personal differences with the property owner. Not Tallboyz, but the actual parcel owner who leases the business out,” said Reynolds.

Recently, there have been reports of telephone wires damaged at the Papa Johns location in Hillsboro and property being tampered with near the Patriot Public House in Hillsboro, but Reynolds said those incidents appear to be unrelated to the damaged windows.

“We’ve upped our patrol in that area just to keep a better eye on it in the afternoon and evening hours to make sure that any suspicious activity is being noted or hopefully deterred,” said Reynolds.

Carson appeared at Hillsboro Municipal Court for an arraignment Monday, Feb. 5 and pleaded not guilty. He is scheduled for a hearing at 9 a.m. Feb. 22.

Reach John Hackley at 937-402-2571.