Thieves steal 75 rocking chairs worth over $22K from furniture warehouse, Okolona Police suspect inside job

OKOLONA, Miss. (WCBI) – Employees for the Alan White furniture company came back from vacation Monday to find one of their warehouses ransacked and tens of thousands of dollars worth of rocking chairs gone.

“Thieves will do anything,” says Okolona Police Chief Tommie Ivy. “They’ll sell them to anyone they can sell them to. This many chairs, it would have to go to a dealer or somebody.”

Chief Ivy says he’s never seen anything like this before.

“They stole about 75 rocker recliners,” he says.

Chief Ivy says the break-in occurred sometime during the Alan White annual company holiday break from July 5 to 11.

“We just basically were in shock,” says Vice President of Operations Mark Haynes. “We haven’t experienced anything like that, to that degree.”

Haynes estimates the total retail value of the chairs to be more than $22,000.

Investigators say it would take four to five people (which is the number of suspects police are searching for) at least 2 hours to unbox and load up all 75 chairs.

Which is part of the reason Chief Ivy suspects foul play.

“I don’t think just anybody went in there,” he says. “Looks like to me, it’s a prank job.”

“There wasn’t a whole lot to go by,” Haynes says. “The merchandise was gone but there was no forceful entry. There was no damage to the building.”

Haynes and the police chief believe the suspects used the loading dock at the back of the warehouse to move all the merchandise onto a tractor-trailer.

“It’s not an entryway that is used very often,” Haynes says. “And it’s also very accessible to the actual placement of where the actual chairs were.”

Haynes told WCBI they have not had any unusual employee absences since the theft.

“Ain’t no way you can unlock (the door from the outside),” Chief Ivy says. “Somebody left them unlocked.”

Haynes says some of the chairs have their logo under the seat cushions and anyone who thinks they may have one of the stolen chairs should reach out to Alan White and local law enforcement.

“We would be able to identify a chair if it was truly ours,” he says.

Chief Ivy says that anyone that does not could face charges of their own.

“If they bought them, we’re going to charge them,” he says. “With grand larceny.”

Anyone with information on the theft should call Crime Stoppers of North East Mississippi at 800-773-TIPS (8477). Crime Stoppers will pay up to $1,000 for a tip that leads to an arrest.