Staff Reports
(Buford, Ga.) – Just after noon on May 28, Gwinnett County Police responded to a burglary in progress at the Americas Best Value Inn in the 4000 block of Buford Dr. The inn’s owner and manager, Deval Patel, said a white male broke the door down to room 117 and stayed the night without permission. Video footage showed the suspect carrying a large gray duffle bag and then throwing it into the woods next to the business, and continuing down the road toward car dealerships.
Room 117 had indeed been broken into and was damaged throughout. A number of the suspect’s possessions were also left in the room. Deval said he recognized the suspect because he had stayed at the inn a few nights earlier that month. Deval added that a female tenant, Sarah Thomas, who had been staying for a few days in room 217, had been seen with the suspect. Thomas told officers that she knew the suspect as Dylan Kaufman, the father to her son.
Officers then spotted Kaufman running into the woods behind the business. An officer retrieved the duffel bag that was tossed into the woods. Inside the discarded duffel bag, officers found what they believed to be methamphetamine rolled up inside a sock. A K-9 unit was then dispatched and an hour later located Kaufman in the woods near Buford Dr. and French Blvd., less than a quarter mile from the original incident.
Kaufman was arrested and taken to the Gwinnett County jail, charged with three felonies and a misdemeanor. Those charges are felony burglary, felony criminal damage to property in the 2nd degree, felony possession of a schedule II controlled substance, and misdemeanor obstruction against an officer.
