By LEONARD GRAY – Managing Editor

HAHNVILLE – A 33-year-old North Shore man with a prison record including federal weapons violations and obscenity was nabbed Friday.

Scant hours earlier, the St. Charles Parish Sheriff’s Office announced through Sheriff Greg C. Champagne’s email alert system that they were actively looking for James H. Crockett Jr., of 80420 Sticker Road in Bush.

Crockett’s photo was placed on the St. Charles Parish Sheriff’s Office website at www.stcharlessheriff.org

Crockett is now being held on a misdemeanor charge of trespassing in connection with an incident last week in the Willowridge area.

In that incident, Champagne said, a suspicious white male fitting Crockett’s description was confronted by a man as he walked through backyards in the neighborhood.

Champagne added the stranger, when confronted by the resident, claimed to be looking for a lost dog. The resident suggested calling the sheriff’s office for their help, at which time, the man fled to a nearby blue Ford Ranger and fled the area.

However, the neighbor was able to acquire a license plate number, which led investigators to Crockett.

As it turned out, Champagne continued, in the residence next door, a teen-age girl was home from school, washing a vehicle as the stranger approached.

Champagne also discovered that earlier in the week, in the same neighborhood, a man attempted to gain entry to a residence where several teen-age girls were home, claiming to be a cable television technician.

In that case, the girls refused him entry.

Champagne, hoping to head off a serious crime, alerted the public through his email system. One subscriber in St. Charles Parish public schools, got word to Hahnville High School and a deputy distributed flyers, which included Crockett’s photograph, to the students boarding buses Friday.

“Rumors had already been spreading, and we just wanted to get the facts out,” Champagne said. “We wanted to get our hands on him, before he got his hands on someone else.”

St. Tammany Parish authorities successfully located Crockett Friday, and he was booked Saturday into the Nelson Coleman Correctional Center near Killona.

He is held not only on the traspassing charge, but also with a hold for federal parole officers, who could seek a parole revocation on his federal firearms conviction.

Champagne could not provide details as to Crockett’s earlier convictions, except that the obscenity conviction carried a three-year sentence.

Officials in Lafourche and Jefferson Parish are also interested in speaking with Crockett regarding similar incidents in their jurisdicrtions.

Anyone can register to receive these alerts by registering online at Sheriffgregchampagne.com.