MOSES LAKE — According to the Grant County Sheriff’s Office, there was one arrest made for suspected robbery and firearm theft last Friday morning. The suspect is a 17-time felon. 

Friday in the 4000 block of Circle Place Northeast in Moses Lake at around 7:20 a.m. a party reported a suspicious person wearing a green sweatshirt and shorts in their garden.

The reporting party saw the suspect stash a rifle case in shrubbery across the street from the reporting party’s home. Deputies then recovered the rifle case and two rifles inside.  

A nearby resident in the 8000 block of Cochran Road Northeast called in a burglary about 25 minutes later. The caller said he was returning from breakfast when he saw a man wearing a green sweatshirt and shorts carrying a rifle case from his house. The homeowner said the screen to his bedroom had been cut.

The suspect, Tejay R. Beaty, 39, was found walking along Airway Drive Northeast and was arrested. Beaty denied involvement but then changed his story after he was presented with a screenshot from a surveillance video. Beaty was lodged in Grant County Jail for first-degree burglary, theft of a firearm and unlawful possession of a firearm.

According to the GCSO statement, a background check showed that Beaty has 17 prior felony convictions, the most recent five are possession of stolen property, first-degree theft, two counts of residential burglary and attempting to elude police.