Investigators say beer can helps deputy make burglary arrest

COWETA COUNTY, Ga. (FOX 5 Atlanta) - A beer-drinking burglar was arrested in Coweta County. Investigators said he left one piece of evidence at the scene of the crime which helped point them in the right direction. Fingerprints taken from a beer can match him, investigators said.

Body cam video from July 2017 shows a deputy arriving at a big metal storage unit that had been broken into in Coweta County. What the video doesn’t show, nor does the crime scene photos is that deep inside that shed there is a beer can that would be discovered days later by the owner. And it was not his beer.

Coweta County investigators arrested Zachary Freeman Nichols and charged him with burglary. He was extradited from Florida where he was taken into custody. Investigators said fingerprints from a prior arrest matched prints taken from that beer can.

Deputies said Nichols was already a suspect in the case and at the time had been staying with friends who lived right across the road from where the burglary happened.

Investigators said they also found numerous cigarette butts on the ground outside the shed. Taken in the burglary, tools and a child’s ATV.