Glenn Wallace Swafford, one of Bradley County's 10 Most Wanted fugitives, was captured and taken into custody Tuesday night after he tried to hide from BCSO deputies in a car near Old Parksville and Lebannon roads.

Swafford was being sought on a felony charge of failing to attend a hearing in court in October of last year. He had been spotted in the area on several occasions, but managed to flee the scene before deputies could arrive.          

Glenn Swafford, from the BCSO Top10 Most Wanted has been captured.

Any time the public has information relevant to a criminal or a crime, they can contact the BCSO by calling either 911 or the Criminal Investigations Division at (423) 728-7336. 

In response to last week’s thefts of central heat and air conditioning units at a rural church and volunteer fire station, Bradley County Sheriff Tim Gobble today posted a reward for information.

He announced the sheriff’s office, in conjunction with Gibco Construction Company, is offering a reward of up to $2,500 for information related to thefts from Berean Baptist Church on Bucks Pocket Road and Valley View Fire Station on Keith Valley Road.

The amount paid for information will be determined by its value leading to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible for the thefts.

Both locations are a short distance from Polk County where five churches have had

HVAC units stolen. The thieves are taking the copper inside to sell to scrap metal dealers.

After the two thefts last week Sheriff Gobble ordered proactive patrols of all rural churches. He noted the five Polk County thefts were a short distance from the Bradley County line.

Reports show a $4,000 loss for the unit stolen at Berean Baptist and $1,200 for the fire station’s unit.

Anyone who has information about either of the thefts in Bradley County is asked to contact the sheriff’s office at 728-7336.

Sheriff Tim Gobble has placed rural Bradley County churches on ‘extra patrol’ after recent thefts of outside heating / air conditioning units in the area.

The order means patrol deputies will make regular checks of those located in the patrol zone they are covering.

In recent weeks there have been thefts from at least six churches in Bradley and surrounding counties. Inside the units the thieves are able to extract copper tubing they can sell as scrap metal. Each theft brings a loss of at least $1,000 and in some cases the value of the unit is in the thousands of dollars.

Gobble is asking the public to be on the lookout for suspicious activity and to not hesitate to call 9-1-1 if you see something out of the ordinary, especially on days and at times when services are not held.

"The public has been a tremendous help reporting suspicious activity and that has helped us to catch several people in the act of committing a crime. We are again asking for their help, " said the sheriff.

Gobble said citizens should not try to apprehend these individuals. "Get what information you can about their appearance and the vehicle they are driving, and then let us handle it."