Notes from the Newsroom

If this is your first visit to the 3WC News blog, Welcome! If not, you've no doubt noticed a little bit of, well, I guess we could call it "refurbishing." We've freshened up the look of the blog, giving it a little more "newsy" look.

You'll also notice a bit of difference about how we post news stories, too. Instead of one big post every day or so, you'll find each individual story posted. It's our hope this will make it an easier read for you, and for those who want to use an RSS reader to follow the news blog, this will make each story an entry in your reader, which should make it easier to skim through to the things that interest you.

Please, email me your comments or news tips any time! My address is news@12403wc.com

Best,
Scott Roberts
3WC News Director

Not Sure What's Going on Here...

One can only guess there's probably more to this than meets the eye. But even the story sheriff's deputies are releasing is a little...well, odd. It starts early Sunday morning, about 4:30am, when a man who lives on Honeysuckle Drive says someone else came up to his door and asked if he wanted to buy some tools.

The gentleman told his visitor, no thanks, he wasn't interested. "Well," the visitor asks, "could you give me a ride somewhere then?" No can-do, because the man doesn't have a driver's license. With that, he turned around and walked back in the house -- only to hear someone starting the car outside, which belongs to his mother. It's unclear if she was there at the time, or just how the car got from her address in Roaring River to his north of North Wilkesboro -- it's about eight and a half miles as the crow flies.

The young man who wanted to sell the tools had a young woman with him, too, according to the man. The man does know the name of the person who was standing on his porch at 4:30 on a Sunday morning and allegedly took off with his mom's car -- but deputies aren't releasing the 19 year-old's name. He lives not far down the road. Oh, and the tools -- four boxes full of them were left on the front porch, along with a box decorated with flowers that, according to deputies, contained "assorted toiletry items."

Freak Accident Near Boomer Kills Man

A Claremont man died in a freak accident just the far side of the Caldwell/Wilkes county line in Boomer over the weekend. 33-year old Thomas Dennis Dillard was walking along the side of the road and was killed when a Chevy Tahoe driven by his girlfriend fliped and rolled over on him. According to the highway patrol, what caused the S-U-V to flip is the real question. They know Dillard and Lisa marie Caroll were having an argument, and that both were possibly intoxicated. They know, because Dillard was under the truck that he was outside of it when the incident happened. But they can't tell if Caroll meant to hit Dillard or if he'd jumped up on the running board and scared her, making her lose control of the Tahoe.

It happened along Hollow Springs Circle, off Highway 18, early Sunday morning. The couple had been at a Wilkes county bar earlier in the evening. After being treated at Caldwell Memorial Hospital, Carroll was arrested on a reckless driving charge and for driving while intoxicated. More charges may be forthcoming.

Who Left the TV in the Yard?

More than 13-hundred dollars worth of property was stolen, and a door damaged to the tune of 350-dollars, during a break-in reported late Saturday evening. Darrell Lawrence called deputies around 10-pm, saying he had come home from a five-hour trip to find his front door kicked in and a number of items missing. Among the out of place items was a 32-inch TV, which was recovered outside, not far from the front door. Deputies were able to lift a few fingerprints after they dusted the house, but so far have no one to match them to. Mr. Lawrence reported a 5-foot-7-inch man sporting a goatee was at his house just before he left, but he did not know the man's name. Deputies are continuing their investigation.

Hays Business Reports Copper Wire Theft

Yet another business, this time in Hays, reports thieves have stolen an expesive roll of copper wire. Sheriff deputies say the high resale value of copper is the reason the county had been seing so much stolen recently. In this case, the thief opened the door to a chicken house and made off with an 800 to 1-thousand-foot roll of copper wire worth about 800 dollars. The burglar also took some water pipe, valued at 300-dollars. Deputies have released no further information about the case.

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.

Rash of Mailbox Bashings

There's really not much better way to summarize this next story, but to say someone drove down a Wilkes road over the weekend with a ball bat hanging out the window of their car. Sheriff deputies took two reports of mailbox vandalism from homes near one another as the sun came up Sunday morning.

The first came from Steven Soots on Elledge Mill Road, the second minutes later from Robert Wagner on Bethany Ford Road. A deputy checking out the situation found eight additional mailboxes had been battered with a bat or a pipe during the night. Damage was noted in the 400 block of Elledge Mill Road, along with two boxes in the 700 block, two in the 800 block, one in the 900 block, one in the 1100 block and one in the 1400 block.

As frequently happens in this type of case, no one reports hearing anything or even noticing until the sun came up Sunday morning.

Local Trooper Hurt on the Job

A North Carolina highway patrol trooper who was investigating a four-wheeler wreck Saturday became pinned between one of the four-wheelers and his car, breaking his leg in two places. Trooper Kyle Barber was working the wreck along White Plains Road Saturday afternoon along with trooper Chris Anderson.

The two ATV's had collided, but neither rider had suffered more than scratched and bruises. One of the four-wheelers had ended up still in the road. According to Trooper Anderson, Trooper Barber was looking at a rifle attached to one of the four-wheelers, and asked one of the men involved in the crash to move the other ATV out of the road.

Charlie Alexander climbed aboard the four-wheeler and started it up,not remembering it was still in gear. The four-wheeler took off, throwing Alexander off, hitting Anderson's patrol car, and pinning Barber to his patrol car. Anderson, who was questioning Charles Holloway in his cruiser, jumped out of the car and shut off the ATV, rolling it back off Barber and calling for a rescue helicopter.

Holloway was already under arrest for impaired driving in relation to the earlier accident. He also faces other charges, and was booked into the Wilkes County Jail on a 2-thousand dollar bond. Alexander will likely face reckless driving charges in relation to the accident that injured Trooper Barber.

Chase Near Mt. Airy Ends with Driver Drowning

A much different outcome for an incident involving troopers near Mount Airy. In spite of a heroic effort by two men who saw a car fleeing from troopers plunge into a pond, the driver drowned before he could be pulled from the car. The Highway Patrol says 45-year old Bobby Junior Ross of Lowgap sped off from a trooper on I-74 that had tried to pull him over for drunken driving just before 10 Saturday night.

After a several mile chase that included Ross blasting through an old car wash with his Taurus and that at times reached 75 miles an hour, Ross lost control and sped into a field. Troopers say he drove another quarter mile, into the Stonecroft subdivision, and right into the water. The car came to rest almost int he middle of the pond.

Two men who heard the commotion saw the car, and grabbed a tire iron to break out hte back window. But the car sank quickly, and they could not find Ross beneath the murky water. The rescuers say the driver told them he wasn't belted in, but he couldn't swim to the surface. An autopsy will be performed to see if there's anything more to Ross's death than the drowning. A supervisor says the trooper was justfified in continuing the pursuit because of the danger Ross posed to other drivers.

Cross Words, Big Damage

A small fight started in a local bar ended with major damage to a Boomer man's car. Wilkesboro Police say they were called to Dooleys last weekend, after Mike Horton and another man, identified by witnesses as Brandon Foster, got into a fight. According to the witnesses, after the disagreement, Foster went outside and repeatedly kicked the driver's door of Horton's car. After he tired of doing that, they say, he left. According to the police report, the damage will cost about 8-thousand dollars to repair.

Local Man Thinks He Was Scammed

"Please tell everybody, but don't tell 'em who it happened to!" That's the request of a Wilkes man after he believes he was the victim of a scam recently. The elderly man received a phone call from an unidentified woman who asked him if he would like to receive free shoes meant for people with diabetes. The victim tells police he had a nice conversation with the lady and answered several other questions -- including giving the woman his social security number. After he did, the caller simply hung up.

Then the victim realized it may have been nothing but a ploy to get his personal information. So he called the social security administration, which told him it would put a "flag" on his account so no one could open accounts with it. He also called the sheriff office to report the incident, and asked them to publicize it -- but to leave his name off.

C-Store Clerk Attacked

A Wilkes woman was arrested Sunday
morning, after the clerk at a local convenience store says she not only
stole something, but attacked the clerck when she tried to stop her.
The theft and assault were reported just before 6 Sunday morning at the
Run-In on Oakwoods.

The clerk tells police a woman, later
identified as 44-year old Terry Lynn Spears, came into the store and
tucked a bottle of Mad-Dog 20-20 into her coat. The clerk followed
Spears outside, where Spears turned on her and decked her, breaking her
glasses. A man riding in Spears' car made no effort to help. After
hitting the clerk, spears hopped in the car and drove off. The clerk
did not seek medical treatment.

Another officer located Spears a
few hours later in an apartment on Industrial Drive. She admitted to
stealing the wine and hitting the clerk, and told the officer she was
embarrassed that the event had happened while she was drunk. Spears was
arrested on a misdemeanor theft charge, along with assault and driving
without a license. She is scheduled for court the last day of February.

State Laptop Stolen, Thousands Have to Watch for ID Theft

Thousands
of North Carolinians are vulnerable after the laptop of a state
employee was stolen. The State Department of Revenue says a thief broke
into the car of one of its workers in December and took the computer
containing personal information. Now it's possible social security
numbers and sensitive material are unprotected.

A laptop
computer with the taxpayer records, names, social security numbers and
federal employee ID codes of more than 30,000 are out in the open.
Unsuspecting, potential victims like Huff are exposed to identity theft.

State
officials urge those who receive a letter notifying them their records
were on that computer to monitor their credit report regularly for a
while, to head off identity theft at the pass.

Soda Machine Burglar

A
burglar who's into hitting soda machines is getting somewhat more
sophisitcated. Over the weekend, someon used a key to open the Pepsi
machine at Locks Carpet Shop. Once inside the machine, the thief took
the change unit and all the change inside it, and left. Total value of
the device and money is about 600-dollars. There were no security
cameras, so deputies have no suspects or leads right now.

Home Break-In

Sheriff
deputies have a few leads to go on, in relation to a home break-in
reported Friday evening. Andy Porter tells deputies his wife locked the
house up tight when she left for work about 10 Friday morning, but when
she got home, she found someone had pried open the back door and gone
in the house. The only items found missing were two, $2-bills. Porter
says there were a number of other valuable items in the bedroom where
the money was taken from, but they were undisturbed. The burglar did
damage a wall in the bedroom, apparently with a flashlight. Total
damage to the house is about 250-dollars.

Neighbors say they
noticed a burgundy station wagon at the house Friday while the Porters
were gone. In spite of never having seen the car before, the neighbors
say they didn't get a good look at who was in it, and didn't think
enough of it to call deputies to come check it out.

Embezzlement Alleged

A
local convenience store owner believes a part-time employee is
responsible for the theft of 45-hundred dollars from the store
Thursday. Pat Patel, owner of Pure for Sure, says when he opened up
Thursday morning, he noticed a couple of locked doors weren't exactly
like he'd left them when he locked up Wednesday night. He says a
part-time worker knew where he kept the register key and the password
to disarm the alarm, Other than the missing cash, nothing else had been
distrurbed. Deputies have talked to the woman, who denies any
involvement. they list the case as still under investigation.

Assault Suspect Held

A
Wilkesboro man was jailed on a 1-thousand dollar bond, police say he
beat up another man. A police officer on the way to assist 29-year old
David Kilby early Saturday encountered 45-year old Spencer Buren Markle
riding a scooter away from the reported crime scene. The officer pulled
over Markle and arrested him without incident, and Kilby identified him
as the man who'd hit him.

Kilby had first made contact with a
highway patrol trooper outside Four Brothers on Westwood Lane. The
trooper was on the way back to Kilby's house to meet the Wilkesboro
Police officer when the officer encountered Markle. The crime report
does not list any injuries to Kilby.

Alcohol + Guns = Not Good

Sheriff
deputies say a group of drunk friends got together recently and decided
it would be fun to fire guns into the woods outside the house. A
neighbor reported hearing the shots about midnight January 6th, and
deputies went to a house on Edsel Road in Traphill to follow up.

They
found about 30 shotgun shells littering the front yard, and three
people in the house. The people said no one there had been shooting any
weapons. Deputies searched the home and found two shotguns and a rifle
in a back bedroom. Then one of the people, a woman, said another person
had been doing the shooting, but she'd run when deputies showed up.
That version of the story sounded good, everyone in the house thought,
so that's what they agreed happened.

It was pretty obvious to
the deputy that the group was intoxicated, and for their own safety he
confiscated the shotguns and rifle. The deputy told them to let the gun
owner know he could pick up the guns at the sheriff's office.
Yesterday, one of the women at the party called the deputy and told him
the guns were hers. Fine, he told her, all she needed in order to pick
them up was proof of ownership.

Deputies Turn Over Leads in Tiller Theft

You
never know what a thief will happen on that looks good to steal at a
praticular moment. Case in point: a 2-cycle roto-tiller taken from a
front porch in WIlkes this week. It certainly isn't the time of year
that anyone would have use for a tiller, but Ella Gregory says hers
disappeared sometime between Christmas morning and early Monday. It was
sitting out on the front porch, unsecured, so no one is really sure
when it disappeared.

Evict Us, and We'll Tear Up the Place

Undoubtedly
some angry words were exchanged during an incident a Wilkes property
owner believes sparked an attempted break-in at one of his rentals.
Paul Whitley tells deputies he threw out two tenants from a mobile home
on his property over the weekend. He reports both got rather angry, but
left without causing any damage. Monday afternoon, he found the back
door of the mobile home had been pried open and several places inside
the house damaged. The bedroom door had been kicked down, and wires
were cut in the bedroom and the kitchen area. He remembers hearing dogs
barking about 3 Sunday morning, and he thinks he saw someone runinng
away from the house. He believes the evicted tenants are to blame for
the damage, valued at 200-dollars. So far, deputies have not made any
arrests.

Stealing Gas 101: Two Different Methods

Two
thieves decided they needed some fuel for their cars in the past few
days, and they chose very different ways to get some without paying.

A
clerk at Creekside Grocery reported last Thursday afternoon the driver
of a burgundy car pulled up, pumped 33-dollars in gas, and drove off.
The clerk followed the couple in the car home, and when she confronted
them, they told her they'd be back into the store Friday to pay for the
gas. She wasn't able to get their name, but she did write down the car
tag number. Deputies ran the tag and it belonged to that kind of car,
owned by a Wilkesboro man. Since that time, they have not seen the car
or the man to follow up on the drive-off.

Yesterday, a thief
decided to take the less risky route, and just dump the gas out a can
in the back of someone else's pickup. David Harrold of Traphill tells
deputies whoever stole the gas, about 5 dollars worth, also appeared to
have gone into his out buliding, because there were some things moved
around in there. But it didn't appear anything had been taken.
Neighbors don't report hearing anything unusual during the night.

Wilkes Native Benny Parsons Dies of Lung Cancer
NASCAR Legend Benny Parsons is dead. Officials at Carolinas Medical
Center in Charlotte announced the 65-year old Parsons, a Wilkes native,
had died this morning of lung cancer. His obituary on NASCAR.com says
the former self-proclaimed Detroit taxi driver-turned-NASCAR racer
never forgot his humble rural North Carolina roots, and it came through
in every aspect of his life.

Even though he gained fame as the 1973 Winston Cup champion and winner
of the 1975 Daytona 500, Parsons understood that as a broadcast
analyst, it was his job to aim the spotlight away from himself. He was
readmitted to Carolinas Medical Center the day after Christmas, after
annoucning his cancer had gone into remission in October. Hospital
officials say his condition steadily worsened once he went back to the
hospital. Funeral arrangements are pending.

Woman Assaults Husband
Wilkes County Sheriff Deputies arrested a woman recently for assaulting her husband. Deputies arrived at the domestic disturbance call to find Coley Scott Wilson and his wife Debra fighting in the front yard. She was drunk, and had driven her car up under the mobile home, getting it stuck under the house frame. The officer tried to calm her down, but she turned around and pushed Mr. Wilson and kicked him in the groin. The deputy arrested Mrs. Wilson for assault, and took her to jail -- all the way insisting that she should be able to drive her car, in spite of getting it stuck under the house. Mr. Wilson did not seek medical attention.

Forged Check - Plus 18 months
Somehow, it took almost a year and a half for a forged check to be recognized as a forgery. At lest that's what sheriff deputies were told by a rural Wilkes woman. She says her bank called her early this month and said a check she had deposited in September 2005, which was written for 5-thousand dollars, had been determined to be a forgery. Annette Harris tells deputies her brother in law had deposited the check in her account, saying it had come from a vendor he had dealings with. So far, charges have not been filed locally in relation tot he case.

Lowe's Hall Opens at WCC
Students started classes this semester in a new science and technology building that is the centerpiece of an $8.4 million expansion at Wilkes Community College. The new building is named Lowe's Hall, in honor of the long-term support provided to the college by Lowe's, the hardware company founded in Wilkes County. The WInston-Salem Journal reports Lowe's Hall is the tallest building at the college and connects the upper and lower campuses. People can ride glass-walled elevators four stories up to a walkway to the Walker Center. The elevator and walkway have greatly improved the college's accessibility for handicapped people. There are 149 steps that connect the upper and lower campuses, and many people drive around rather than taking the stairs.

Heritage Grants
Three Wilkes county groups were among the latest round of grant recipients from the Blue Ridge National Heritage Area. The grants announced recently total more than $340,000 for 18 projects meant to preserve and promote Western North Carolina's heritage.

• The county was awarded $20,000 to study the feasibility and economic impact of the multi-county Yadkin River Heritage Corridor Partnership initiative.

• The Save Our Wilkes County History Committee got $5,000 for a project creating videotapes of 100 oral histories.

• Old Wilkes Inc., the non-profit group that runs the Wilkes Heritage Museum in the old Wilkes County Courthouse, got $7,016 for a museum exhibit about the region's music.

Underage Driving
A 15-year old girl was recently arrested for underage driving. A Wilkes County Sheriff Deputy heard a broadcast concerning the girl, who was said by North WIlkesbor Police to be intoxicated as well as under age, early last Thursday morning. He found the girl stopped along Hunter Road, with the car still in the roadway. She said she had run out of gas. The girl told the deputy her mother had given her the car keys and let her leave an address on old Highway 60. The deputy arrested the girl and impounded the car.

Police Chase/Crash
A Wilkes sheriff deputy escaped injury when a man trying to get away crashed into his patrol car. Deputy Jonathan Watson says he was on routine patrol Saturday evening, and as he passed a Ford pickup, the driver turned on his bright lights. Watson spun around to stop the driver, who sped off. After a car chase that led south on White Plains Road, west on Bethany Ford road, and into a driveway. The man who was trying to get away lost control as he rounded a mobile home, slid into a tree, then backed up and slammed the pickup into Watson's patrol car. Watson briefly tried to chase the man on foot, but he disappeared into the woods.

There was about 2-thousand dollars damage to the patrol car, but in spite of the damage, Watson was able to continue using the cruiser for the balance of the weekend. The other driver has not been caught, but the pickup has been impounded, only to be released on Watson's signature.

Deputy Assaulted
A domestic violence call leads to violence against a sheriff deputy. Early this morning, deputies responded to a home on Boone Trail in Purlear, to calm down a domestic disturbance. Apparently another man pulled up to the scene, and stopped his car right next to one of the deputies. the deputy reports the man then changed gears and spun out, pelting the deputy with enough gravel he felt he needed to turn around and cover his head. The deputy reports being hit by rocks in the head, back, arms and legs. He pulled his handgun and arrested 52-year old Robert Carroll McClean, and charged him with assault on a law enforcement officer.

Millers Creek FD Generator Stolen
A Wilkes fire department reports someone has stolen an important piece of their equipment. Sometime in the past six weeks, Millers Creek Fire Chief Jason Smithey says a yellow Titan generator was stolen from the Big Ivey substation. Ivey says there was no sign that anyone broke into the station, but the generator, worth about 25-hundred dollars, and a heavy-duty extension cord, worth 200-dollars, were stolen. Firefighters often have to use generators at fire scenes to power some of their tools, and to provide light when utilities have been cut off.