![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/john-bethune-mugshot.jpg\")
article <\/p>\n article <\/p>\n
Pictured: John Bethune. Image is courtesy of the Columbia County Sheriff’s Office. <\/p>\n
LAKE CITY, Fla. – A Florida<\/a> man is behind bars after deputies said they found several stolen flags inside his apartment while investigating the theft of a United States flag.<\/p>\n What we know:<\/p>\n The owner of Baker’s Communications contacted the Columbia County Sheriff\u2019s Office last Wednesday and said the U.S. flag and cable had been stolen from the flagpole outside his business.<\/p>\n According to CCSO, security footage showed an unknown man on a bicycle entering the property shortly after 3 a.m. and then cutting the cable from the flagpole.<\/p>\n The suspect then removed the cable and flag and rode away.<\/p>\n READ: Florida couple shoots, kills Brandon man while trying to evict him from apartment: HCSO<\/a><\/p>\n The next day, a deputy was conducting business checks around 2:30 a.m. and said he saw a man on a bicycle in the area of SW Main Blvd. and SW Coronado St. who matched the description of the person in the surveillance video.<\/p>\n That man was identified as 62-year-old John Allen Bethune.<\/p>\n During an interview, deputies said Bethune told them he took the flag from Baker\u2019s Communications. They noted that they also found a flag in the bags on his bicycle.<\/p>\n Bethune was arrested for felony petit theft due to previous convictions in Santa Rosa County.<\/p>\n When deputies tried to return the flag to Baker\u2019s Communication, the owners said that it wasn\u2019t their flag because it had a different color cable.<\/p>\n READ: Buc-ee\u2019s hit with \u2018F’ rating in customer service crisis<\/a><\/p>\n That\u2019s when deputies got a search warrant for Bethune\u2019s apartment and said they found several other U.S. flags and cables inside.<\/p>\n Deputies said they found Baker’s Communications\u2019 flag inside Bethune\u2019s apartment and returned it to the business.<\/p>\n According to CCSO, the flag Bethune had on him belonged to the owners of another business north of Baker’s Communications. That company notified the Lake City Police Department that its flag was stolen in the early morning hours of Feb 22, 2026.<\/p>\n That company\u2019s flag was returned, as was a third flag that was reported stolen after Baker\u2019s theft.<\/p>\n What’s next:<\/p>\n Deputies are still trying to figure out who owns a flag that was recovered in Bethune\u2019s apartment that has not yet been claimed.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Source: This article was written with information posted on social media by the Columbia County Sheriff\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n Florida<\/a>Crime and Public Safety<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"article Pictured: John Bethune. Image is courtesy of the Columbia County Sheriff’s Office. LAKE CITY, Fla. – A…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":188304,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[630,47,28,30,29,115,628],"class_list":["post-188303","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-crime-publicsafety","tag-fl","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-news","tag-us"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188303","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=188303"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188303\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/188304"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=188303"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=188303"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=188303"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}