LIFE Tech resident turns in alleged thief

Alabama Southern received help with a security issue recently from a surprising source.

Since April, the school's grounds have been maintained by residents of the LIFE Tech program. LIFE Tech is a transition center for male parolees that opened in the old Thomasville mental health facility on Bashi Road.

The LIFE Tech residents are supervised in their work, and small crews help maintain the buildings and grounds of campuses in Thomasville, Monroeville, and Gilbertown.

After several recent break-ins of vehicles at the Monroeville campus, security officers asked the LIFE Tech work crew to help watch for suspicious activity there.

Not long after that, LIFE Tech resident Martin Creasman was outside the building working when he saw a man emerge from the back window of a pick-up in the parking lot.

Creasman confronted the individual and asked what he was doing. The man said the vehicle belonged to a relative who had told him he could borrow some tools that were inside.

Creasman took note of the vehicle that the man was exiting, and he took down the license plate of the vehicle he left in. He reported what he had seen to his supervisor, who alerted security and administration at the school.

The Monroeville police were able to trace the tag to a vehicle belonging to a former student. Creasman provided a description of the suspect that matched this individual. Police officers brought the suspect in for questioning, and Creasman was taken by his supervisor to the station, where he identified the suspect as the man he had seen.

LIFE Tech director Darrell Morgan said the resident's actions show one of the positive outcomes that have resulted from their presence in this area.

"Every day we have guys working, some for the city, some for the school, and they're bringing a lot of skills to the job site," Morgan said.

"Some are bricklayers, some heavy equipment operators; others are carpenters, and some are concrete finishers. They have done a lot of repairs and taken on a lot of projects that otherwise wouldn't have been done."

Creasman is from St. Clair County. He'll complete the LIFE Tech program in early April.

"I commend Creasman for his conscientiousness in turning in this individual," Morgan said.

"His actions hopefully brought an end to a security problem on that campus."

Creasman has also been helpful within the classroom.

One week after reporting the parking lot incident to his supervisor, Creasman was speaking to students in Alabama Southern's sociology classroom. He told them about being incarcerated for 10 years on his last charge, and of having been locked up for 17 of the last 20 years.

He told them about the prison system, rehabilitative services, and crime and punishment.

"The choices you make today will affect your tomorrow," he told the students.

After graduation Creasman plans to go to Birmingham to work for a family business there.

Creasman said drug addiction and falling in with a bad crowd led him to make bad decisions. His advice to the students: "Choose your friends wisely". And of course, stay away from drugs.

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