The Mississippi Agricultural and Livestock Theft Bureau has added three counts of receiving stolen property to a Claiborne County man accused of possessing more than $200,000 in stolen farm equipment, 4-wheelers, guns and trailers, Director Jeff Stewart said.

Additionally, the Vicksburg Police Department was investigating potential charges against Steven Mark Curtis, 47, 7142 Curtis Lester Road, who already has been charged by the Claiborne County Sheriff’s Department with possession of stolen property and is being held on $48,000 bond in the Claiborne County Jail.

Vicksburg Capt. Bobby Stewart said local charges would stem from the theft of a 2001 Chevrolet Tahoe stolen in November 2005 from the Atwood Chevrolet dealership on North Frontage Road in Vicksburg.

Jeff Stewart said he expects the bail to increase when Curtis makes his initial court appearance on the state charges. He did not know when that would be.

“There were pieces of equipment reported to the Theft Bureau, so we took a couple of those and charged him ourselves to take a little pressure off the Claiborne County Sheriff’s Department,” Stewart said. “We’ve had numerous reports that came to our agency on some of these thefts.”

Stewart said the thefts of at least three of the tractors and other farm equipment found on Curtis’ property had been reported to the bureau. Some of the thefts were in Claiborne County, and some were in Lincoln and Hinds counties, he said. The Vicksburg theft was reported to the VPD.

Initial reports indicated related thefts also had occurred in Rankin County, but Claiborne County Sheriff Marvin Lucas said this morning that was incorrect.

He said initial charges against Curtis are limited to property stolen from Claiborne addresses.

“We’re charging him for the equipment that people have come in and claimed,” Lucas said.

Stewart said a search warrant executed by the sheriff’s department, the Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks and his agency was the key to solving the crimes.

“This guy would not have been caught had we not executed the search warrant,” he said. “Typically, people are caught transporting the stuff on the highway or they get caught selling it. This guy just had it sitting on his property and he never took it anywhere.

“He had a pretty good bit of stuff,” Stewart said. “Some of the tractors were cases I worked from 2009.”