A Texas man charged in theft, burglary and criminal damage to property in an attempted ATM theft in Anderson County in May 2024, is awaiting arraignment after a May preliminary hearing. Cornelius Jeffers of Houston, was charged after the May 2nd, 2024, attempted theft of a pickup truck in Garnett which investigators say he and an alleged accomplice used to dislodge and transport an ATM belonging to the Patriots Bank location on Maple Street in Garnett, before leaving the area and removing its cash container.
He was subsequently extradited to Texas and was denied a motion to dismiss the Anderson County case while residing at a Beaumont, Texas, Federal Correctional Facility. Franklin County officers spotted a vehicle heading into the Ottawa area at a high rate of speed on the night of the theft and broke off the pursuit due to the possibility of injury. Lawrence police later recovered one of the vehicles involved at an east lawrence convenience store before suspects were arrested in overland park a few hours later. A date for the arraignment has not been set.
