Two people are facing burglary charges after Mobile police say surveillance video captured them breaking into a vacant Tillmans Corner restaurant building and taking items that did not belong to them. The arrests stem from an early-morning report at one of the area’s most recognizable former eateries, and investigators credited camera footage with letting them move from a crime scene to two suspects in custody in a matter of hours.
According to a news release from the Mobile Police Department, officers responded to the former Dick Russell’s location at around 8:30 a.m. on July 29 after a report of a burglary at the business. Dick Russell’s, a longtime Southern-style chicken restaurant chain with roots in the Mobile area, has been closed at the site for some time, but the building remained the target of what police describe as an unauthorized entry. Responding officers secured the scene and began piecing together what had happened inside the darkened restaurant before turning to the property’s own cameras for answers.
Surveillance Footage Leads Officers to Suspects
Once on scene, officers reviewed surveillance footage from the property that showed two individuals entering the building without permission. Investigators say the footage also showed the pair removing items from inside the business, giving police both a record of the entry itself and documentation of what was taken. Using that video evidence, officers were able to identify the two suspects, a step that in many property-crime cases becomes the difference between an unsolved break-in and an arrest.
Police identified them as 34-year-old Anthony Hodges and 24-year-old Preston Wiant. Both were arrested and booked on charges of third-degree burglary, a felony under Alabama law that generally applies to unlawfully entering a building with the intent to commit a crime inside, such as theft. The charge does not require evidence of forced entry into a residence or injury to anyone inside, which is why it frequently appears in cases involving vacant commercial buildings, storage structures and unoccupied storefronts.
How Third-Degree Burglary Works Under Alabama Law
Under Alabama’s criminal code, burglary is divided into degrees based on the circumstances of the offense. First- and second-degree burglary involve dwellings and aggravating factors such as injury or the possession of dangerous instruments, while third-degree burglary covers the unlawful entry into any building with intent to commit a crime. A conviction carries significant prison exposure, and because the offense is a felony, cases are typically presented to a Mobile County grand jury before any trial in circuit court. As with any pending criminal case, both suspects are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in a court of law.
About the Location
Tillmans Corner, an unincorporated community in Mobile County just southwest of the city of Mobile, is a busy commercial corridor along U.S. Highway 90, home to numerous restaurants, retail centers and other businesses. The area developed as one of the county’s principal population centers outside the city limits, and its strip centers and freestanding restaurants serve a surrounding residential community that stretches toward Theodore and Grand Bay. Because the community is unincorporated, law enforcement services in the area are provided through a combination of Mobile County and Mobile city agencies, with the Mobile Police Department handling calls at many addresses along the corridor.
U.S. 90 is one of the oldest and busiest commercial routes in Mobile County, running parallel to Interstate 10 and connecting the city’s western neighborhoods with the communities of the southern county. High visibility brings steady traffic to businesses along the highway, but it also means that properties which sit empty after a closure remain in view of thousands of motorists each day — a dynamic that can cut both ways for owners, attracting potential buyers and tenants while also exposing vacant buildings to trespassers.
Why Vacant Commercial Buildings Draw Break-Ins
Vacant or former commercial buildings in high-traffic areas like this one can sometimes become targets for break-ins, particularly when they sit unused between tenants. Thieves often focus on whatever remains inside a closed business — kitchen equipment, air-conditioning units, copper wiring, fixtures and anything else that can be resold or scrapped. Beyond the immediate loss of property, break-ins at empty buildings can cause water damage, fire risk and code problems that complicate efforts to lease the space again, which is why commercial property owners across Mobile County are frequently urged to keep utilities secured and alarms monitored even when a building is idle.
The case also underscores the value of surveillance systems in helping police quickly identify suspects after a crime is reported. Modern camera systems that record entrances, exits and interior spaces allow investigators to confirm the time of an entry, document the actions of anyone inside, and circulate identifiable images for follow-up. In this case, the footage collected at the former restaurant did exactly that, giving officers the basis for two arrests rather than a report with no leads.
What Comes Next
Hodges and Wiant were booked into custody following their arrests. From there, the case moves along the standard path for felony prosecutions in Mobile County: an initial appearance and probable-cause review in district court, followed by a grand jury presentation to determine whether the defendants will be indicted on the burglary charges. If indicted, the case would proceed in Mobile County Circuit Court, where defendants typically enter arraignments and, in many cases, negotiate resolutions with the District Attorney’s Office before trial.
As with any pending criminal case, both suspects are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty, and the outcome will depend on the evidence presented in court — including the surveillance footage that investigators say documented the entry and the removal of items from the building. Prosecutors will also weigh the value of what was taken and each defendant’s criminal history, factors that can influence both the charges that are pursued and any sentencing recommendation if convictions are obtained.
The Broader Picture for Tillmans Corner Businesses
For the business community along U.S. 90, the episode is a reminder that closing a restaurant does not close the risks that come with a commercial building. Local owners and managers routinely coordinate with the Mobile Police Department on security walkthroughs, alarm registration and camera placement, and neighborhood business associations along the corridor encourage members to report suspicious activity around vacant properties quickly rather than assuming someone else has done so. Reports from neighboring tenants and passers-by remain one of the most common ways break-ins at empty buildings are discovered in the first place.
The Mobile Police Department continues to ask anyone with information about property crimes in the Tillmans Corner area — or about any burglary under investigation — to come forward through the department’s tip lines or the regional crime-stoppers program, where callers can remain anonymous. In cases like the one at the former Dick Russell’s, quick reporting and usable camera footage combined to produce arrests within days, a sequence investigators point to whenever they urge local businesses to invest in both.
The Department Behind the Investigation
The Mobile Police Department is the primary law enforcement agency for Alabama’s largest port city and one of the biggest municipal departments on the Gulf Coast, with officers assigned to precincts that cover the city’s outlying commercial corridors as well as its downtown core. The department’s public communications office regularly issues news releases on arrests like this one, both to keep residents informed and to encourage witnesses in similar cases to come forward. Investigators who work property crimes rely heavily on those tips, along with business surveillance systems, to build cases that can survive review by prosecutors and the courts.
For residents of Tillmans Corner and surrounding unincorporated communities, the department’s ability to respond quickly to a morning burglary report reflects the reality that crime does not stop at municipal boundaries. Commercial corridors along U.S. 90 and nearby state routes fall within the patrol patterns of city and county officers alike, and agencies in Mobile County routinely share surveillance images, suspect descriptions and vehicle information across jurisdictional lines when a case calls for it.
A Familiar Pattern for Gulf Coast Businesses
Break-ins at closed restaurants and shops are among the most common property crimes reported in suburban Mobile County, and law enforcement agencies across the region have repeated the same advice for years: keep exterior lighting on, clear windows of obstructions, maintain active alarm service, and retain camera footage long enough for investigators to retrieve it after a report. Businesses that follow those steps — as the former Dick Russell’s location evidently did — give police the raw material needed to identify suspects before they can dispose of stolen property or strike another location.
The arrests of Hodges and Wiant close one chapter of the case, but they also serve as a working example for other property owners along the corridor. A vacant building with a functioning camera system produced documented evidence and two identifications in a single day. For a commercial strip where several buildings sit empty between tenants at any given time, that combination of reporting, footage and quick police response is what investigators describe as the most reliable formula for turning a break-in into a prosecution.