Three Men Indicted After Nearly Five Thousand Dollars Stolen from Cumming Walmart
A Forsyth County grand jury indicted three out of county men after a December 3 theft at the Market Place Boulevard Walmart that removed nearly five thousand dollars of merchandise. The case highlights rising costs for local retailers and the strain on law enforcement resources when mobile theft teams target suburban stores.
Forsyth County prosecutors returned indictments on December 5 charging Derrick Jarod Davis, Frankie Montez Hampton and Samuel Demetrius Wright Jr. each with one count of theft stemming from an incident at the Market Place Boulevard Walmart on December 3. Investigators say the group loaded electronics, clothing and other items, some billed at several hundred dollars each, into a vehicle about midnight and drove off before abandoning the car in east Forsyth.
Sheriff's officials report that none of the three suspects live in Forsyth County. Wright Jr. was believed to be the driver. He was arrested at the scene after falling while attempting to run from the vehicle. The whereabouts of Davis and Hampton could not be confirmed at the time of the indictment.
The initial police response escalated into a large search that drew multiple law enforcement agencies, tracking dogs and a helicopter scanning the Windermere Parkway area near Old Atlanta Road and Trammel Road. Officers found a GPS device among the stolen items left behind in the vehicle. The device listed five addresses tied to other Walmart stores, some of which are located more than 150 miles away, a detail that suggests a pattern of targeting multiple stores across a wide area.
For local residents the episode matters on several fronts. The immediate loss of nearly five thousand dollars of inventory is a direct cost to the retailer and can contribute to higher prices, tighter inventory control and increased security measures at neighborhood stores. The extensive manhunt required coordination and resources that carry budget implications for Forsyth County and partner agencies, particularly when aerial support and canine teams are deployed.
Policy and market implications extend beyond this single incident. Prosecutors must balance charge severity with the value stolen, and retailers will likely reassess loss prevention strategies. If devices and addresses point to coordinated activity across counties the case may spur greater regional collaboration among law enforcement and retailers to disrupt mobile theft operations. Residents can expect to see visible security changes at busy retail corridors as businesses and police respond to reduce repeat incidents.
