Stolen Tools Returned to Habitat for Humanity in Canton

Cherokee County Sheriff's Office detectives returned tools valued at about $5,000 Tuesday that were allegedly stolen in April from a work site in nearby Fulton County to Habitat for Humanity in Canton.

Sgt. Jay Baker, spokesman for the Sheriff's Office, said the commercial grade tools were stolen from a trailer parked at a Habitat job site in Milton.

The tools returned to the non-profit organization on August 12 were part of a cache of more than 200 pieces of stolen property, including motor vehicles, confiscated from a home off Holbrook Campground Road in July, Baker said.

Detectives with the Sheriff’s Office Criminal Investigation Division arrested Christopher James Antkowiak, a 34-year resident of the eastern Cherokee County home, last month after they discovered the items during an investigation that authorities say began in mid-July.

Baker said Antkowiak has been charged with 16 counts of receiving stolen property, forgery, possession of tools to commit a crime, two counts of possession of an article with altered identification mark, and theft by deception.

Additional charges are expected, Baker said.

Antkowiak was released from the Cherokee County jail on a $316,730 bond, Baker said.