License Check Leads to Drunk Driver

A recent driver's license check netted sheriff deputies one drunken driver, who went to great lengths to avoid the checkpoint. Deputies say they were running a check lane at Sparta Road and Ruritan Road recently. A car approached the checkpoint, and instead of pulling in line, the driver turned off his headlights and pulled into a nearby driveway. He backed out of the driveway, and hit the gas, spinning out as he took off in the other direction. Three deputies sped off behind him and got him stopped within a couple of miles.



When 27-year old Glenn Perry Junior got out of the car, deputies say he was wearing only blue jeans and a pair of socks. He leaned over and knocked on the back tire of his car with his had, saying he thought he had a flat. The deputies say the oder of alcohol was strong, and when he was given a breath test, Perry blew a .12. When asked how much he had had to drink, Perry said "about 12." Deputies say he was very unsteady on his feet, and pleaded with them not to arrest him, as he had been stopped earlier in the day in Allegheny for drunken driving and had already done time for yet another case of D-U-I. It was not surprise to deputies to find out he wasn't carrying a driver's license -- in fact, he didn't even have a valid one, because it had been revoked. Deputies did arrest Perry,l on a charge of drunken driving, one of driving on a revoked license, and one of a ficticious tag.

Mailbox Damage Reported

A couple of Wilkes homeowners say they've been the victims of mailbox bashings. Both cases have been reported recently, one in Roaring River and the other outside North Wilkesboro. Billy Ray Billings says he believe he knows who hit his mailbox, because he's been having problems with someone recently, including a couple of other cases of damaged property. This unidentified man had been seen across the street mowing the lawn the day before the box was hit. The other man told the deputy yes, he had been mowing across the street from the Billings, but during taht time Billings had been harassing him, and his mailbox was also damaged about the same time as Billings' was.



In the other case, two men reported a vehicle had run off the road and smacked into their mailboxes. They didn't see the incident happen, and their neighbors also had not seen anything.

Burglary Suspects Caught

Sheriff deputies have arrested three Wilkes residents for stealing over 1-thousand dollars worth of items from another person. 27-year old Eric Randal Wyatt, 26 year old Emma Denise Perry, and 60-year old J-C Perry were charged with breaking into a garage owned by Brenda Johnson and stealing a number of items. Johnson called deputies a few days ago, saying she had actually confronted Wyatt in the act of stealing. He told her Mr. Perry had used bolt cutters to break the lock on Johnson's garage some time ago, and the three had been stealing items a few at a time. Stolen items included a John Deere Corn Planter, an Antique Cross-Cut Saw, A chain saw, a number of gardening tools., a willer, and antique pedal car, 50 antique bottles, some automotive tools, a pair of fender skirts for a 1955 Chevy, and a creeper. Most of the items had been sold; Wyatt did return the corn planter and cross-cut saw.

Toolbox, Tools Stolen

A local man says his outbulidng was broken into recently, and he's out a rare toolbox and set of tools. Matthew Scottie Foster called deputies Wedneday afternoon, about half a day after he discovered the break-in. It happened at a home where he used to live, and was reported to him by a neighbor. The thief had broken a lock on the outbuilding. Foster found a screen had been ripped off the back window of the building, but apparently the thief could not get in that way, because the lock had been knocked off the hasp. The burglar stole a Jesse James collector toolbox and tool set, valued together at one-thousand dollars. Foster noted a number of distinguishing features of the box and the tools, so police will be able to identify them if they show up on area pawn sheets. Neighbors don't report seeing anything, but the deputy working the case believes he may have developed a lead, according to his crime report.

Stolen: One Catalytic Converter

When you hear what was stolen and where it happened, you're likely to wonder how no one could have seen it. A Wilkes man, Zachary Ferguson, tells sheriff deputies he went out to the Warrior Creek Boat Ramp last Saturday morning about 9, and parked his Toyota 4-Runner in the middle parking area. He was gone until about 1pm, and when he started the truck up, he noticed it sounded like it had no muffler. So he shut it down and got out, laing down to look under the S-U-V. Sure enough, part of the exhaust sysem was unattached -- but it wasn't the muffler. Someone had crawled under the 4-Runner and stolen the catalytic converter. Ferguson has no idea who might have taken the part worht about 300-dollars, and there wasn't anyone who reported seeing a person under the S-U-V.

Deputy Averts Attack by Using Pepper Spray

A Wilkes County Sheriff Deputy repots he was assaulted this week. Fortunately, the assault was only verbal, but the situation very nearly escalated to blows. Deputy Jonathon Watson was called Wednesday evening to a domestic disturbance on Rock Creek Road in Hays. By the time he arrived, he found a man passed out and his wife packing up to leave. With the situation calmed down, Watson and the unidentified woman left the house. He parked at the Mountain View galaxy a while later, and while he was talking with another deputy, the woman came up to them and said her husband had just celled and told her to get back to the house or he'd come looking for her. She was worried that he'd get in the car, nearly passing-out drunk.



Watson and the other deputy returned with the woman to the house. He says when he walked into the house, the man woke up and seemed pretty confused about what was happening at the time. The other deputy stepped outside to check on a car that had just pulled up, and during that time the man started yelling at Deputy Watson, cursing him and threatening him. The deputy pulled out his pepper spray, and the man, 42-year old Richard Barry Ayers, made threats to Watson if he chose to spray him. Watson says Ayers appeared to be getting ready to take a swing at him, so he shot him with the pepper spray and ordered him to the floor. He was able to cuff Ayers without further incident. After being cleaned up a the jail, Ayres was given a bond of 750-dollars on the cahrges of assaulting an officer and communicating a threat.

Chase Results in Tickets, Arrest

A man speeding through the area prompted a police chase, but by the time deputies got him stopped, he was no longer driving the car. In a report released today, a deputy says he was on routine patrol last weekend on Mount Carmel Road, and encountered a man speeding toward him in the oncoming lane. The deputy estimated his speed at 70 miles an hour, and confirmed it with radar. As the deputy tried to turn around and followed the man, the car sped up and swerved into the opposite lane. The deputy was unable to catch up with the car. He turned around again, and as he passed a house, the homeowner flagged him to a side road, indicating the driver had turned down that road. Again, the driver took off, speeding down Mount carmel Road. This time, the deputy finally caught up with him, and found that the man in the driver's seat was not the one he'd seen driving the car originally -- but the passenger was. The deputy asked Jimmy Porter to get out of the car, and he admitted later he had switched places with Michael Finney.



The man who had flagged the deputy to indicate where the car had gone, pulled up a bit later, and said the driver had sped into his driveway and almost hit an 8-year old child. He confirmed the drivers had switched before taking off southbound. Jimmy Porter was issued a ticket fro reckelss driving, while Michael Finney was arrested for driving with a revoked license, speeding, and reckless driving.

Tire, Wheels Stolen

WIlkes Sheriff Deputies have been working a series of tire thefts recently. They don't appear to be releated. One man was arrested over the weekend, not for the stolen tire in his back seat, but for drunken driving and other offenses.



That incident started with a call to deputies by Waggoner Tire. An employee at the store said 29-year old Jackie Pruitt had stolen one 13-inch tire from the store Sunday. The employee didn't know Pruitt's name, but was able to give deputies an accurate description of his car, a white 1993 Ford Fiesta. A deputy saw the car later, and stopped Pruitt, who admitted the tire in his back seat came from Waggoners. He returned the tire, but was then arrested anyway, in spite of Waggoners not wishing to press charges. The deputy reports he tested Pruitt for drunken driving, and he blew a .09 on the breath test, just over the legal limit. Pruitt was arrested for drunken driving, driving on a revoked license, no insurance, fictitious plates, and an expired inspection sticker. He was jailed in lieu of a 5-thousand dollar secured bond.



In the second case, two aluminum wheels, a heavy-duty Jeep wheel, and a tire were stolen from the front yard at a Miller Creek home. It happened sometime between Wednesday night and Saturday, according to the victim, Tonye Morefield. The aluminum wheels were for a dune buggy, and Morefield said they'd been laying in the front yard for more than a year. During the time in question, no one reports seeing anything out of place. Deputies ahve no suspects at this point, but have increased patrols in the area.

Wreck Near Elkin Kills Two

A Wilkes County man and his wife are dead following a wreck earlier this week near Elkin. 82-year old Harley Carter and his wife Helen died instantly when he pulled in front of a speeding pickup on Old U.S. 21 north of Elkin. Troopers say the driver who hit them had been drinking, but the main factor in the wreck was Harley Carter pulling in front of the other driver. Carter was turning right in a Buick from Pleasant Ridge Road onto Old U.S. 21 in Wilkes County.



As he made the turn, his car was hit on the driver's side by a pickup driven by Ricky Dean Norman, 53, of State Road. Both cars slid about 50 feet. The Carters were dead when paramedics arrived. They were wearing seat belts. Norman was taken to Hugh Chatham Memorial Hospital and later flown to Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center. At last check he was in fair condition.



Charges of driving while impaired and exceeding the posted speed limit are pending against Norman. A preliminary investigation showed that he was driving about 55 mph in the 45 mph zone on Old U.S. 21, and there were beer cans in his truck.

Purse Snatcher Collared

Sheriff deputies have made an arrest in connection with the attempted theft of a woman's purse as she shopped at Lowes Foods Monday. As we told you earlier today, the woman reported Monday she had turned around from looking at something on the shelf, and seen the man going through her purse. When she told him to leave it alone, he walked off, but then charged at her from the end of the grocery aisle and tried to grab it. She fought him, then screamed and he ran off. Yesterday, deputies arrested 31-year old James Charles Mann, after the woman identified him from a photo line-up. With the help of a North Wilkesboro detective, the sheriff's detective arrested Mann, who confessed to that incident and a similar one at the other Lowes store. Out in the woods behind that store, Mann led the investigators to the wallet he'd stolen from a person there. Mann faces a charge of attempted robbery and one of robbery.