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Probation for car thefts
Donald Tweedy
Donald Tweedy

An 18-year-old Gays Mills man was placed on two years probation, including 120 days in jail, on a Grant County felony charge.

Donald Joseph Tweedy was placed on probation after he pleaded no contest in May to a Grant County charge of taking and driving a vehicle without consent, for an incident Nov. 24.

Tweedy previously was placed on three years probation, including 60 days in jail, in September on charges of taking and driving a vehicle without consent, driving or operating a vehicle without consent, and vehicle operator fleeing or eluding an officer. 

Grant County misdemeanor charges of party to criminal damage to property and criminal trespass to a dwelling were dismissed, as were four traffic offenses — unreasonable and imprudent speed, reckless driving endangering safety, operating without a valid license and failure to obey a traffic officer signal or order. A Crawford County charge of taking and driving a vehicle without consent was also dismissed in December.

Tweedy was sought after a car theft in Bell Center June 3, 2014, and a pickup theft in the Town of Platteville one day later.

Tweedy was accused of stealing a white 1998 Ford Mustang belonging to his mother from a residence in Bell Center, south of Gays Mills. 

Later that night, a vehicle matching the description of the Mustang was seen at the scene of what the Grant County Sheriff’s Office described as “several attempted burglaries” in Dubuque. Two people then got to Platteville in a car matching the description of the stolen vehicle, where a sheriff’s deputy tried to stop it.

According to the sheriff’s office, a pursuit was terminated after the car crossed into Lafayette County. The car then returned to Grant County, and the car was found abandoned on East Business 151 near East Mineral Street in Platteville early June 4.

On June 4, 2014 around 9 p.m., a caller to the Grant County Sheriff’s Office reported seeing two males, whose description matched the occupants of the Mustang, in the Stumptown Road area in the Town of Platteville, west of Platteville. An earlier report noted “suspicious activity” as well northwest of Platteville.

Then, June 5, 2014 around 10:30 a.m., a red Chevrolet pickup truck was reported stolen from a residence on Stumptown Road. The truck was recovered in Dubuque June 6, according to the Sheriff’s Office.

Tweedy turned himself in to authorities five days later.

Tweedy’s probation terms include a requirement for him to get a GED or HSED diploma or the equivalent. That was also a term of his November probation, according to court records. The November sentencing included the possibility of expungement if he completed probation with no violations.