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While awaiting a federal sentence in a nationally recognized public corruption case, former Spartanburg County, South Carolina Sheriff Chuck Wright engaged in the “pursuit” of a stolen trailer after observing it being stolen from his front yard.
According to multiple incident reports generated in response, the theft of the felonious former lawman’s 6-by-12-foot utility trailer — which he valued at a whopping $8,000 — occurred in the early morning hours of Friday, June 5, 2026.
That same trailer appears to have depreciated in value, however, approximately six miles from Wright’s home, where he eventually met officers from multiple agencies, including deputies at the same sheriff’s department from which he pleaded guilty last fall to stealing thousands of dollars.
“During the pursuit,” a responding deputy from the Spartanburg County Sheriff’s Office (SCSO) wrote, “the trailer became detached from the suspect’s vehicle, struck a mailbox, and caused damage to a residential yard.”
While SCSO redacted Wright’s name from the incident report provided to FITSNews, the Lyman Police Department (LPD), which also responded to the scene, did not.
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RELATED | CHUCK WRIGHT LIED TO FEDERAL AUTHORITIES, SOURCES SAY
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“Once on site, I made contact with the (owner) Charles L. Wright,” wrote a responding officer with LPD. “[He] advised me that an unknown subject/vehicle had stolen his trailer from his residence and he attempted to follow the vehicle while officers were enroute.”
The same LPD officer noted that Wright was unable to recall anything distinguishable about the truck he pursued for approximately eight minutes, except that it was a “white in color late model Ford pickup truck.”
The ex-sheriff further volunteered that he doesn’t have “exterior surveillance” of his home, leaving little else for SCSO or LPD to go on.
Wright also declined to give a voluntary written statement, according to LPD.
As for his four-figure utility trailer — a rounding error compared to the $462,866.06 he faces in restitution related to his federal charges — it was “recovered” by Wright via Rhodes Towing, according to the incident reports.
What remains unclear is the trailer’s practical purpose, and whether it’s been used by other members of the Wright family during their latest business venture, Just The Wright Property, LLC, launched amid the former sheriff’s very public expulsion from Palmetto State law enforcement.
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A self-described real estate investment company, Just The Wright Property was founded in July 2025 by Wright’s scandal-scarred son, Jared “Andy” Wright, whom he deputized during his final year in office despite state ethics laws barring sheriffs from hiring family members.
As for timing, the fledgling LLC was founded approximately two months after Chuck Wright resigned from office amid a federal investigation, and therefore one month after the younger Wright resigned from SCSO following the governor’s appointment of an interim sheriff.
It would be another nine months — during which the former sheriff was charged and pleaded guilty to three federal felonies alongside two co-conspirators — before Just The Wright Property began using Facebook to market the homes it was buying, renovating and renting.
But against the ever-expanding saga of Wright’s downfall, neither a property company laminated with his last name nor a trailer stolen from his home amounts to anything more than a footnote.
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FITSNews continues digging into Wright’s 39 years of service at SCSO, with sources from both sides of the badge revealing a tenure increasingly entangled with convicted fraudsters, illegal gamblers, drug distributors and a widening Rolodex of violent criminals.
Despite that backdrop, Wright and his defense team asked for leniency ahead of his sentencing, citing a PTSD diagnosis, addiction treatment, sustained sobriety and cooperation with investigators.
Federal prosecutors, however, pushed back on his pleadings, arguing Wright’s decades in office were used to perpetuate “schemes involving theft, deception, and controlled substances.”
For federal crimes he pleaded guilty to and was convicted of, Wright will be sentenced in federal court at 10 a.m. on July 7, where he could face anywhere from 33 to 41 months in prison.
Write to Andy Fancher at andy@fitsnews.com.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR…
Andrew Fancher is a Lone Star Emmy Award–winning journalist from Dallas, Texas. He joined FITSNews in 2023 after leaving an NBC affiliate, where he served as on-air talent. His reporting focuses on public corruption in South Carolina, with an emphasis on law enforcement misconduct and abuse of power.
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