Purse Stolen

Being young sometimes means learning hard lessons. A local 13-year old girl found that out the hard way last week, after her purse was stolen from her unlocked car. It's not clear whether the girl or her mother forgot to lock the family car, a 2003 Kia, while they went into Mountain View Galaxy Food Market last Thursday, but when they came out, the purse was gone, along with a cell phone and an MP3 player, valued together at about 100-dollars. No one in the store at the time admitted seeing anything, and there are currently no suspects.

Laptop Stolen

An older laptop computer is missing, after a Wilkes woman says she arrived home from work to find it had been taken from a locked house. Rochelle Almond lives on Village Drive. She reported the burglary late Monday. She says she left for work Monday morning, and locked up the house as she always does. She got home that evening, had to unlock the door to get in, and found the laptop computer, a Dell model she valued at about 300-dollars, missing. There was no damage to the house, and nothing else had been taken. Almond tells deputies she is the only person she knows of with a key to the house. There are currently no suspects or other witnesses.

Coke Machine Break-In Unsuccessful

It's not often anymore you find a soda machine laying on its face in a parking lot. Wilkesboro police were alerted to one recently, though, in Cub Creek Park. It appeared someone had pulled the machine out and over a board mounted to the concrete in front of it, then pushed the machine over on its face. It being early last Sunday morning, police couldn't contact anyone with the Coa-Cola company, but later in the day Cliff Gardner with Parks and Recreation did make contact, and reported that when the machine was turned upright, the only damage was to the plastic sign on the front. It had not been broken into. The replacement value of the sign is about 300-dollars.

Drug Bust

Wilkesboro Police had to get in the middle of a disagreement between two people over a car key, and what they found when they did led to drug charges against one fo the people. A sergeant doing paperwork in the McDonald's parking lot last Monday was approached by a woman, who told him her sister was in a nearby motel and would not give her the keys to her car. The sergeant and another officer went with the woman to Addison Inn, where the sister, Debra Moretz, said she didn't have the key at all. That was, until her sister started ratting out Moretz for having crack. Then she admitted the key was thrown under one of the beds. The drug allegation prompted a search of Moretz and the room, and turned up several items of drug paraphernalia that tested positive for crack residue. Moretz was arrested for possession of drugs and of paraphernalia, and booked into jail on a 1-thousand dollar bond. She's scheduled for court a week from Wednesday.

Home Burglary with A Twist

Sheriff deputies are investigating a home burglary with some interesting twists. Although the thief got away with almost 25-hundred dollars worth of property, it all came from one jewelry box drawer. The box was left there, and none of the other drawers were opened.The Roaring River homeowner reported Tuesday morning someone had opened an unlocked back door and gone into a bedroom, where they found the jewelry box. Several jewelry items were stolen, including sapphire and diamond rings, pearl rings, diamond and sapphire earrings, and a Bulova diamond watch. All of the items were gifts from the man to his wife. Oddly, the crime was reported last week, after the items had been missing for more than a month -- and that was about two weeks after the last time the man knew any of the items were in the jewelry box.

Wholesale Grocer Burglarized

A Wilkes business is the victim of a recent break-in that resulted in the loss of about 800-dollars of merchandise. Makinna Produce owner Concepcion Hernandez tells sheriff deputies he checked his shop early in the morning last Tuesday and found it secure. But a few hours alter, he returned and found a side door had been jimmied open, and a thief had gone inside. A number of cartons of cigarettes, worth 500-dollars, were gone, along with quite a few small items such as instant noodles, leaf produce and Tylenol, totallinga bout 300-dollars. No one saw anything out of place, and deputies have no suspects.

Watch for Fake $20 Bills

Local banks and the police ask merchants and anyone who accepts money to watch closely for counterfeit bills. Someone is paying for purchases with fake 20's. Northwestern Bank was the latest institution to note a counterfeit bill among their customer deposits from Monday. By the time the bills are scanned at the bank, there's no way to tell where they came from. It was deposited between 2pm and 5pm at the branch on Curtis Bridge Road. As in other cases of this type, the bill was photocopied for local records and the original sent to the secret service for investigation.

Stalker Collared

A weekend stalking case had a deputy returning to a woman's home so many times he almost wore a rut in the road. It started in the wee hours of Saturday morning at 345 Hilltop Acres. Berniece James called the sheriff's office to report a prowler. A deputy found nothing. A little while later, she calls back -- the prowler is tapping on the window. Again, deputies search the area and find nothing. Minutes later, another call, and again, no prowler.



This time, the deputy parks a little way up the street and turns off his headlights. It wasn't long before Mr. Sneaky, who goes by the name Michael Greer, stalks out from between two houses, headed for the James place. The deputy pulled up and Greer dashed away into the woods. After another deputy returned to the scene, the two of them flushed Greer out of the woods and arrested him. He said he'd parked his moped a mile away and hiked up to the house. Apparently he was a former co-worker with Ms. Jones and developed a thing for her -- feelings she says she didn't share. She says he's been stalking her for two years. Greer was booked on multiple charged and placed under a 5-thousand dollar secured bond.

Nothin' Up My Sleeve -- Presto!

A little distraction can work wonders when you're a magician -- or a thief. That was the method chosen by one bandit over the weekend. 26-year old Emerson Jones, Junior was arrested yesterday morning, a few hours after employees at McDonalds say they foiled his attempt to steal money from the drive-thru. Here's how it happened:



Jones appeared at the drive-thru window about 3:30 yesterday morning without placing an order first. He asked a former co-worker to exchange a bag full of quarters for folding money from the cash register. The employee took the money to the office to run through a change counter. In the mean-time, Jones got out of his car window, pulled open the driver through window, and stuck his head and arms in the store. He turned the key in the cash drawer and had a fist full of cash when another employee saw what was going on. She ran into the drive-thru and started yelling at him to put the money back, at which time he threw a $20 and some change at her and sped off. Turned out he'd held onto about 60-dollars, too.



Since they used to be his co-workers, the employees knew exactly who to tell police to look for. Around sunrise, officers spotted Jones and pulled him over. A search of his car turned up several keys that didn't belong to Jones. Officers called the manager of a North Wilkesboro car wash that had been recently burglarized, and he was able to match one of the keys to his master key. Jones faces felony charges of Breaking and Entering and Larceny for the McDonald's incident, and will likely face other charges for the car wash crime. He was jailed in lieu of a 5-thousand dollar secured bond.

Drinking + Riding Around = (You Guess)

When the story starts "victim states he was riding around and drinking with suspect," it usually has nowhere to go but downhill. What happened to a Wilkes man Friday night is true-to-form. After some time of riding and drinking, Tyrone Henderson and Squire Evans -- you guessed it -- got into an argument. They ended up out at the end of Damascus Church Road. Evans told Henderson to get out of the car. Henderson refused. More argument ensued, until, as the deputy writes it, "both parties exited the vehicle."



At this point Evans jumps back in the car and starts to speed off. But to add injury to insult, he slams the car into reverse and backs over Henderson, breaking his ankle. Evans is reported to then step out of the car, look at the victim (presumably saying some things that aren't recorded), get back in, and drive off. It's not clear who called 9-1-1, but when EMS arrived, Henderson was still laying in the middle of the road, about 15 feet of black tire marks clearly pointing the way to him. Evans has since been served with a warrant for Assault With A Deadly Weapon.