PAINTSVILLE, Ky. — A Johnson County man is in jail on felony charges, after authorities were alerted to a theft in progress.

Dispatchers received a report of a motion detector going off at the phone lines on top of Starfire Hill in Paintsville last Thursday night and sent a sheriff’s deputy to check it out. When the deputy got there, he saw a section of line was missing, then saw a man standing underneath who ran away once of officer shined a light on him.

The man, identified as Charles Andrew Hammond, 46, of Paintsville, was caught after a chase of about a thousand feet. When captured, Hammond said he was with another man who was further up the hill, but no one else was ever found.

AT&T estimated the cost of repair and replacing the line would be about $10,000.

Hammond was arrested and charged with theft over $10,000, criminal mischief and fleeing police. He remains in the Big Sandy Regional Detention Center, in Paintsville.