FBPD: Operation Rooftop gang targets included Flowery Branch construction site

The five men who were charged last week following an investigation into construction site thefts in north Georgia included one construction site in Flowery Branch, according to Flowery Branch Police.

“The group targeted a construction site located on Avery Drive in Flowery Branch on the night of July 10^th, 2024,” Asst. Chief Todd Templeton said Thursday, “and took nearly $40,000 in roofing material.”

Chief Templeton commented as the Hall County Sheriff’s Office (HCSO) noted that one of the suspects, Gabriel Amaya Zalasar, was booked into the Hall County Jail Wednesday. He had been held in the Jackson County Jail since he and the other suspects were arrested. Bond has been set at $27,700. The charge is Theft by Taking-Greater than $1,500.

EARLIER STORY. POSTED LAST THURSDAY: HCSO: ‘Operation Rooftop’ leads to 5 arrests in construction material theft ring (wgtjradio.com)

About the Author

Ken Stanford is Online News Editor for GLORY 97.5, a position he has held since August 2022.

Ken was born in Moultrie, Georgia, and says he knew from the time he was 5 or 6 he wanted to be a “radio announcer.” That dream was realized when he was hired by Moultrie radio station WMTM in 1960 at the age of 15 as a weekend disc jockey. A 1963 graduate of Moultrie (now Colquitt County) High School, he has spent his whole career in Georgia working for stations in Atlanta, Marietta, and Gainesville – most recently as News Director for 40 years at WDUN in Gainesville. He is a veteran of the U.S. Air Force Reserves.

Ken retired in 2011 but came out of retirement last year to help GLORY, on a part-time basis, beef-up its online news presence.

He is the recipient of many Associated Press awards and is a former judge of state and national Associated Press broadcast news contests. In 2005, he was presented with the Georgia Associated Press Broadcasters Association’s President’s Award for Excellence in Journalism and in 2019 was inducted into the Georgia Radio Hall of Fame.

He lives in Gainesville with his wife of 52 years, the former Sandra McKnight of Clio, Alabama, and they have one child, a daughter, Lisa, who lives in Cumming with her family.