JAY — A local man is being held on $10,000 cash bail at a Farmington jail in connection to the theft of $75,000-plus from a Jay elderly man.

Daren McLean, 41, of Jay walked up to Jay police officer Nicholas Gulliver on Thursday morning while he was investigating an accident on Main Street and told him “I’m the man you are looking for,” Jay police Chief Larry White Sr. said.

Gulliver arrested McLean on a warrant issued Wednesday on a felony charge of theft by unauthorized taking or transfer, White said.

Gulliver also charged McLean on a violation of condition of release in connection to a prior operating under the influence charge that he was out on bail.

Even if McLean makes the cash bail on the theft charge, he still won’t be released from the Franklin County Detention Center until he goes before a judge on the violation charge.

Jay officer Mike Mejia and Franklin County Sheriff‘s Detective Tom White conducted a joint investigation into the missing money after family members reported it to police, Chief White said Wednesday

Police say McLean had moved into the residence in 2008, and assisted in taking care of the residence and the man, he said.

McLean is accused of cashing checks that belonged to the elderly man that he wrote out himself and cashed at several businesses, White said.

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