Good Guy with a Gun #88: Ponchatoula, LA
Original incident: January 27, 2024. Hillary's book is titled It Takes a Village. But to do what? In this case, it took a subdivision to catch a ring of burglars.
These posts are based on our Good Guy with a Gun calendar. If you bought or received a calendar, contact me for a complementary subscription. Today’s post is somewhat updated from the calendar version. Here’s a free link to one of the sources.
According to NextDoor, “Creekside Subdivision in Ponchatoula, LA, is a peaceful, family-friendly neighborhood. Known for its well-kept homes, green spaces, and community spirit, it's a great place for families and retirees. It's close to local amenities, yet maintains a quiet, suburban feel.”
Residents there stopped a ring of three burglars — Zachary Lafluer, 27, Amber Skelton, 37, and Branson Monistere, 29 — who had been hitting houses in the neighborhood and selling the goods from a U-Haul.
A homeowner caught Lefleur burglarizing his home and tried to restrain him while calling for help. A neighbor, whose home Lefleur had just burgled, came and tried to assist, but Lefleur got away and hopped into his truck — so one of the homeowners shot out the tires on it.
Fleeing on foot, Lafleur tried to break into another home, where he set off a house alarm. This alerted yet another homeowner — not the homeowner where the alarm was going off, but the guy who lived behind him — who went on a little walkabout and found Lafleur, asleep in his (the homeowner’s) truck. He held Lafleur at gunpoint until police came.1
A few days later, the police were told about a U-Haul truck parked outside of the Discount Tobacco Store, where two people were selling stolen goods.2 Amber Skelton was caught at the scene; Branson Monistere fled, but was picked up a few days — maybe about a week — later, after a vehicle pursuit.
The trio had been selling the stolen goods from a U-Haul truck at the Discount Tobacco Store about three miles away in Ponchatoula.
On AN17’s Facebook post, a commenter said, “The girl worked as a home healthcare and cleaning lady. She had an inside look into these homes if she is ever to have been linked to them. Y'all choose y'all's cleaning services carefully. Install cameras.”
“The Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff's Office would also like to thank all of the victims and witnesses who assisted with this investigation and as such, all property stolen from the Creekside Subdivision was recovered and returned to the victims,” said Sheriff Daniel Edwards in a news release.
The burglars were charged with the following:
Zachary Lafleur was charged with two counts of Residential Burglary, two counts of Vehicle Burglary, Attempted Burglary, Simple Criminal Damage to Property, and Felony Illegal Possession of Stolen Things.
Amber Skelton was charged with three counts of Residential Burglary, Vehicle Burglary, and Felony Illegal Possession of Stolen Things.
Branson Monistere was charged with three counts of Residential Burglary, Vehicle Burglary, Felony Illegal Possession of Stolen Things, and Failure to Appear.
Sources
A primary source: Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff’s Office Facebook post.
Local news coverage:
WVUE Fox 8 and WAFB 9 both ran the same story by Ken Daley. There’s lots of rich detail here, and I always like to see the neighbors getting interviewed as they were on Fox 8.
WDSU 6 did a good job covering the original incident and Monistere’s arrest.
AN17 gave a good report before Monistere’s capture.
A blog I hadn’t seen before — Unfiltered with Kiran — gave a good report.
The Advocate gave a report. Mt Hermon TV did two, The Hammond Star and WGNO did reports.
2A/conservative specialist coverage was pretty good, too:
Cam Edwards at Bearing Arms.
Sean Holt at USACarry.
Ilan Hulkower at The Daily Signal.
Some reporting mentions “Weighberger Road,” but it’s clearly Weinberger Road, which is right outside the development. There’s also a Creekside mobile home park about three miles away, but you can tell from the Fox 8 TV coverage that that’s not the place.
Some reports say they were selling out of a U-Haul in the same subdivision. That’s not believable, so I’ve favored the idea that they were selling from Discount Tobacco.