Knife Collection, Other Items Stolen

Wilkes County Sheriff Deputies are beginning their investigation of a crime that's reported to have happened Christmas weekend. But the victim didn't report the crime until some kids found the box with is property in it, late last week. Claude Johnson lives near Hays. He says he remembers a metal box containing about 65-hundred dollars worth of property was in his home the Saturday before Christmas, but it had disappeared by December 26th.

The box contained a knife collection numbering more than 125 pieces, and valued at nearly 52-hundred dollars, along with rings, tools and memorabilia -- and several morphine patches. That last part is important, because Johnson says a relative told him a person, whose name is not being released, threw what he called a "pill and morhine party" at a home near Airport Road and Rock Creek Road shortly after Christmas. Deputies are still conducting their investigation into the theft and whether the party is related to it.