THOMASVILLE — Two former ALLTEL employees are among five people charged with stealing from the telephone company.

According to Lt. Tim Watkins, Thomas County Sheriff’s Department chief investigator, Benjamin Cleveland Foster, 29, 412 Roundtree St., Boston, wrote more than $20,000 in worthless checks for ALLTEL phones and phone service and sold the goods on the street.

Foster bought as many as 75 phones a day — “under the table” — for $30 to $50 and sold them for $100 to $125 each, the investigator explained.

“Foster is in jail in Houston County on an unrelated charge, and he confessed (in the ALLTEL case),” Watkins said.

The suspect is being held in Houston County for arranging fraudulent financing for six vehicles. He is charged here with theft by deception.

Security officials in ALLTEL’s Tampa corporate office contacted the sheriff’s department in May and asked for the agency’s help when it appeared Foster had written about $22,000 in worthless checks to the company, Watkins said.

Investigators interviewed Foster and another Boston man, Tyrone Devon Thompson, 26, 465 W. Jefferson St., Apartment 17, and a Boston woman, Yolanda Yvonne Williams, 1811 Grooverville Road, among others.

Watkins said Thompson also confessed.

“They implied that several of the store employees might have been involved,” Watkins said.

Purchases were made at the Thomasville East Jackson Street ALLTEL store, at ALLTEL at the Thomasville Wal-Mart and at ALLTEL stores in Valdosta and Albany.

Joshua Donald Moye, 22, 311 Briarcliff Drive, and Michael Lewis, 25, 2015 E. Pine Tree Blvd., former ALLTEL employees, also were interviewed.

“They had been terminated for violating company policies,” Watkins explained. “They were not processing the checks correctly. … They denied any involvement in the scheme.”

Moye and Lewis are charged with theft by deception. They were released from the Thomas County Jail on bonds of $2,500 each.

Thompson and Williams, also charged with theft by deception, were released from jail on bonds of $15,000 and $5,000, respectively.



Senior reporter Patti Dozier can be reached at (229) 226-2400, ext. 220.