Couple charged with stealing appliances from their own foreclosed home

GWINNETT COUNTY, Ga. — A Gwinnett County married couple is facing felony charges after police say they broke into their previously foreclosed home and tried to remodel their new home with appliances and cabinets taken from the seized property.

Police said Jeremy Brown was coming to the vacant Monroe home on Calumet Lane at odd hours, breaking into the house and cleaning it out.

But Channel 2's Craig Lucie spoke with Brown and his wife, Dawn Nolan, and they said the charges they are facing are outrageous. They also said the items inside the foreclosed home belong to them.

Walton County Sheriff's Capt. Chris Cannon showed Lucie an entire evidence garage full of the custom cabinets and high-end appliances.

"What they took was a lot of stuff, and they took a complete interior," Cannon said.

Cannon also showed Lucie a trailer packed with more cabinets, wrought iron and granite counter tops that used to be inside the foreclosed Walton County home.

"The suspects were inside the residence and were interrupted by a real estate agent showing the house to clients," explained Captain Cannon.

Nolan used to own the Monroe home with her ex-husband. Lucie spoke with Brown and Nolan outside their new Gwinnett County house.

"I didn't break into any home. I didn't break into anywhere," Nolan told Lucie.
Lucie then asked, "The detectives say they got these items from your former house, so if they weren't stolen by you, who stole them and how did they end up in your own house?"

Nolan replied, "I didn't do it," and turned to her husband.

"I had went and got the items. I know what I did. The police came over here and charged me with five counts of burglary for going to a house and stealing cabinets that was previously purchased by my wife," Brown told Lucie.

He said it looks worse on paper and that he is not someone who is going around stealing air conditioning units like some people may assume.

"We did pay for those things out of our pocket. It was not wrapped up in the mortgage. There's no way I want these things from this other home in this house. There's no way that the items would fit in this house," Nolan told Lucie.

Brown said he knows it was wrong and added that he nearly lost his job, but at the same time, he and his wife feel like the custom cabinets and appliances belong to them.

 Cannon said, "They just felt like, 'Well it was mine before, I'm going to take it with me,'" which he said they just can't do.

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WSBTV