Name of Attempted Robber Released

Wilkesboro Police have released the name of the woman arrested last
week as she tried to rob First Citizens Bank. 42-year old Mitzi Ann
Standberry is charged with attempted robbery following her arrest
Wednesday. She was captured by Wilkesboro Police Chief Robert Bowlin,
who was driving by the bank when the robbery was reported, and went
inside in plain clothes after parking his unmarked car outside the
bank. Standberry, who is from Blowing Rock, is held on a 15-thousand
dollar bond.

Fight with Bats, Guns

Sheriff deputies say what was probably already an illegal exchange of
property escalated into a fight, and ended with one of the parties
shooting at the other. It happened Thursday afternoon near Austin
Ballpark. Mark Holbrook tells deputies he and some friend went to the
ballpark to exchange a food stamp card with some other people,
including Brady Spicer. People in each group had words before the
echange took place, and Spicer's group took after Holbrook's group with
baseball bats. As Holbrook and the others tried to leave, Spicer
stepped out of his car and fired a single round at Holbrook's car,
which lodged in the trunk without hurting anyone.

Deputies found Spicer and the others in his group, and received consent
to search tehir car for the gun used in the shooting attempt. IN
addition ot the handgun, they found various drug paraphernalia and a
small amount of marijuana. Brady Spricer was arrested, along with
relative Richard Spicer and Matthew Steves, who lived at the same
address.They are charged with three counts of assault with a deadly
weapon, shooting into an occupied vehicle, damage to property, and
various drug crimes.

Stolen Checks Case

The Wilkes County Sheriffs office is the second one brought in on an
investigation into stolen checks. Traphill Lumber reported last week
that they had gotten a check back from a West Jefferson woman marked
"account closed." When deputies contacted the woman, she told them to
discuss the case with the Ashe county sheriff's department. A deputy
there told local investigators that Ashe county had arrested two people
for stealing several checks from the woman's account. The local check
fraud charges will be added to those from Ashe county.

15-year old Passes Out, Drunk, in School

A 15-year old student at Wilkes Central High School was charged
with alcohol possession by a minor, after causing a scene in her
second-hour class. The girl suddenly threw up and passed out, and
officials later determined it was because she was drunk. School
officials say they also found alcohol in the North WIlkesboro girl's
possession.

Woman Jailed for Assault

A Millers Creek woman is held without bond, on a charge she broke a
man's nose. 36-year old Mary Ellen Burgess is charged with assault
inflicting serious injury after the incident last week at the home of
McGrady resident Andrew Pardue.

Pardue says Burgess came over to return some property she had taken,
and that he'd filed a criminal complaint on. He told her to leave and
never come back, pushing her out the door. But he says Burgess pushed
the door back open and came in. The two ended up in the carport, where
she's accused of picking up a plank and hitting him in the face,
breaking his nose. Pardue says he grabbed her arm and forced Burgess to
the ground. She says the grab came first, and he kicked her several
times while she was down. She doesn't offer an explanation for how his
nose got broken. She was taken to the hospital, where a doctor said the
only signs of injury were from a possible sprained ankle. She had
claimed her head and neck had been injured in the scuffle. Deputies
booked her into jail without any further problems.

Tool Thefts

Sheriff deputies are working two thefts of tools reported last week.

The first was reported Wednesday in Ronda. Robert Patrick tells
deputies someone had stolen a 2-stage air Craftsman compressor from his
property. The last time he had seen the compressor, Patrick says, was
last Monday afternoon. He discovered it missing Tuesday night, but
waited to report it until Wednesday morning. He says the compressor is
worth 400-dollars, and he has no idea who may have taken it.

A Hays man reported mid-morning Wednesday at a thief had stolen a
Husqvarna Chainsaw from him. Melvin Royal says he believes he knows who
took the saw, and provided deputies with their name. It had disappeared
from a shed in his back yard sometime over the previous weekend, he
says, but he waited three days to report the crime. Deputies speculate
there may be a disagreement between Royal and the other two men over
some money one owes another.

WRMC Lease Almost Ready
The lease agreement for Wilkes Regional Medical Center is nearly finished. A 30-year agreement between the WRMC Operating Board and the Town of North Wilkesboro has been in negotiations since the Board was chosen in October. The Record reports the agreement should be finalized in time for the North Wilkesboro Town board meeting in February.

The Operating Board’s proposal was approved by the town board on Oct. 3. Commissioners Bert Hall, Debbie Ferguson and Robert Johnson voted in its favor. The decision followed weeks of heated discussions between town and hospital officials.

The Operating Board had previously held the lease on the hospital which expired last year. Renewal of the lease keeps the town-owned hospital under local control, under which it has been since it first opened in the 1950s.

The Operating Board will also partner with Carolinas Healthcare System and Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center (North Carolina Baptist Hospital), which can offer resources and development at WRMC according to hospital officials.

Tires, Rims Stolen
It was a dark and stormy night -- well, raining at least. And it wasn't really night, either -- it was about noon last Friday. But it was raining when a Hays repair shop owner noticed two men outside his shop stealing tiers and rims off vehicles in his lot. The rain is important, you see, because the thieves were loading the tire into the trunk of a 97 Cavalier. Sheriff deputies spotted the Cavalier not long after Gary Porter reported the theft. They pulled the drive rover, and walked up to the car to find 29-year old Eric Shumate and 39-year old Mark Shumate soaking wet. When they opened the trunk, deputies found the tires, rims, and a loose tire iron. All those items were drip-drying, too. The Shumates were arrested for stealing the tires and rims, worth a total of 180-dollars.

Radiators, Batteries and More Stolen
Sheriff deputies say they aren't done with the investigation into a burglary at a chicken house-turned-auto shop recently. Ruffin Dale Gambill reported the theft at his shop on Traphill Road about 5:30 Saturday evening. He'd left the shop that morning, and came back to find five radiators, 3 batteries, and 2 tires on rims had been taken from cars in the shop. Total value of the loss was 725-dollars. Gambill told deputies the name of a man he believed might have stolen that type of property, but when dupties went to that man's house, he denied involvement, and they found nothing when they searched the place with his permission. The case remains under investigation.

First a Victim, Then a Suspect
The suspect in a burglary reported Friday was the victim of a crime less than two hours before. We told you earlier today about the theft of tires from a Hays auto shop. One of the men arrested in that case was 39-year old Mark Anthony Shumate. Sheriff deputies had seen Shumate less than two hours before the theft, when he reported someone had stolen his Tan Carhart jacket from the back seat of his car. The doors were unlocked and the windows left down. Shumate said other items in the car looked like they had been rifled though, as well. There are no suspects so far.

Shooting Reported, Unexplained
Wilkes County Sheriff deputies aren't sure what to make of a shooting incident reported Sunday afternoon. By the time a deputy arrived at the home of 43-year old Grayson Keith Parsons in Purlear, Wilkes EMS and Fire/Rescue were getting Parsons ready to be airlifted to Baptist hospital in Winston-Salem. Parsons was found by Robin Black, who lived in the home, with a gunshot to the right side of his head. A crime report released yesterday doesn't speculate as to what happened. The gun, a 32-caliber revolver, was recovered at the scene. The case remains under investigation.

"Education" Lottery Leads to Crime in Wilkes
The Virginia Lottery has led to a crime in Wilkes county. A local convenience store reports several former clerks may have been involved in a scheme that led to over 7-thousand dollars disappearing from the lottery cash drawer in October. According to the owner, the employees in question have all quit since then. A log of all lottery payouts is kept by each store, and in several cases, more money went out of th register than was reported on the log. The three former employees face the possibility of an embezzlement charge.

Pickup Stolen, Found
Sheriff deputies were on the lookout for a White Dually Pickup stolen from rural North Wilkesboro over the weekend. James Micheal Brineger tells deputies he left the truck unlocked Friday night when he went inside his house . And, unfortunately, the keys were in the pickup, too. When he came out Saturday morning, the truck was gone. Deputies say the pickup was found later in the day along highway 268 East. It appeared to be undamaged, and was returned to Brineger.

New License Plates Coming
In April, the N.C. Division of Motor Vehicles will start replacing existing license plates with an updated version. The oldest plates will be replaced first.
The new standard plates for private automobiles will continue the "First in Flight" design, but will carry red letters and numbers rather than the blue letters and numbers now in use.

Officials say that many vehicles car-ry license plates that are more than 20 years old. Their legibility and reflectivity have deteriorated, making identification difficult for law enforcement.

Owners with registrations identified for plate replacement will be notified with their renewal notices. They will be automatically issued a new plate, DMV officials said. Owners renewing registrations through the mail or on the Internet will be mailed a new plate and registration sticker. The cost of vehicle registration will remain the same.

Police Investigate Theft
Wilkesboro Police are investigating the theft of property from a Wilkesboro man last week. Russell Faw reports that he went out to his carport closet around mid-day Tuesday to get some tools. When he opened the closet doors, Faw found a golf bag and club missing. He says the Adams golf clubs were worth about 800-dollars, while the bag was worth around 200-dollars. The closet was closed, but not locked, and the last time he'd been out to it was a week ago Saturday. So far, police have not arrested a suspect in the case.

Chain-Reaction Wreck
Three people were hurt, but only one was taken to the hospital after a chain-reaction wreck last week at Highway 421 and Winkler Mill Road. 41-year old Jennifer Melton, of Moravian Falls, tells police she was westbound on 421 Tuesday and was talking on her cell phone, so she didn't see the traffic back-up at the stop light.

Melton's 1999 Honda hit the back of a 2004 GMC Pickup driven by Shane Mitchell of Wilkesboro, pushing him into a 1976 Ford driven by Doris Wyatt of Roaring River. Wyatt was taken to Wilkes Regional Medical Center by EMS with minor injuries. Two other people were checked out by paramedics and refused treatment.

Break-In Attempt
It appears whoever tried to break into a Wilkes home recently didn't make it, but they caused plenty of damage in the attempt. The victim happened to walk out his front door about 9:30 New Years' morning and see the evidence of the break-in. Someone had used a pry bar of some sort to attempt to get in the house. Damage from the pry tool was valued at 200-dollars, and the victim says it appears nothing was taken from inside. He was unsure when the attempt might have happened.

Wreck Near Tyson Hurts One
A two-car collision caused minor injury for one of the drivers last week. The wreck was reported early Wednesday morning. Michael Kessler says he was making a delivery to Tyson just before 2 a-m. He had stopped the truck to open a gate, and left the truck sitting in the street as he usually does. While he was outside, a 19-92 Toyota driven by 19-year old Leeza Marie Handy hit the back end of the delivery truck. She says she had seen the truck at the bottom of the hill as she left the stop sign at Collge and Wilkes, but she was unable to stop just seconds later on the way down the hill. The crash report shows she left about 30-feet of skid marks. She was checked out by Wilkes EMS paramedics, but refused further medical treatment. Kessler was not hurt.

High-Speed Chase
Two men accused of stealing a car led sheriff deputies on a high-speed chase this weekend. The car was reported stolen about 6:30 Saturday morning from Mary Katherine Sevart's house in Millers Creek.She had started the 1986 Crown Victoria to let it warm up before she left for work, and gone back inside to finish getting ready.

About 8:15, a deputy that had been alerted to the stolen car encountered it eastbound along highway 268. When the deputy turned on his lights and siren, the driver cut left, passed another car in the no passing zone near Fairplains Road, and took off. Then the driver turned left onto Aaron Call Road, the deputy pursuing him at speeds reaching above 60 miles an hour.

The car turned right onto Bills Lane, and when they reached the end of the street, the driver and a passenger jumped out and ran to the woods. Deputies converged on the area and chased down one of the men, 19-year old Christopher Smithey of North Wilkesboro, who was arrested on an outstanding warrant and for his role in the chase.

Once deputies learned the identity of the second man, 17-year old Thomas Clyde Porter, they started looking for him. A deputy encountered him near 24 Park Road. As he tried to arrest Porter, the deputy was hit in the chest, and ended up wrestling Porter to the ground. Both were charged with a variety of charges relating to the chase and the earlier car theft.

Elkin Residents Arrested Outside Lowes
Shoplifting, only a more advanced form. That's what you might call the incident that landed two Elkin residents in jail over the weekend. Wilkesboro Police were called to Lowes Home Center Friday afternoon, where they arrested 23-year old Jeremy Poe and 22-year old Trina Johnson.

Here's how police say the scheme worked: Poe went into the store and bought a spool of electrical wire. He left, and a few minutes later Johnson showed up, put anther spool of the same wire in her cart, and sauntered out of the store without paying. When confronted in the parking lot. she showed Lowes security the receipt. But they were onto the scheme, and Johnson broke down, saying Poe had threatened her if she didn't help him steal the wire. Johnson was booked for obtaining property by false pretense, while Poe was charged with felony aiding and abetting, along with driving on a revoked license.

Big Drug Bust
Wilkes County sheriff deputies have arrested two North Wilkesboro men, after a raid yesterday that netted nearly 63-thousand dollars in cash and thousands of dollars worth of drugs. The raid happened about 3:45pm yesterday at 460 Otis Brown Drive. According to a sheriff department news release today, deputies seized nearly 20 pounds of marijuana, 124 grams of methamphetamine, 26 grams of cocaine, over 1-thousand hydrocodone pills, and a number of guns.

36-year old Bobby Devon Bare and 24-year old Jeffery Leon Harless were arrested and booked on charges of Trafficking in Marijuana, Methamphetamine, and Opium, possession with intent to sell cocaine, and other misdemeanor charges. The sheriff's office says the raid came from a two-month investigation by members of the Special Enforcement Team.

Convenience Store Burglarized
A Wilkes convenience store employee opening for business this week found someone had broken into the store. The burglary was reported early Tuesday at the Grocery Bag on Boone Trail Road. The clerk reported the back door had been pried open, and the security bar holding it shut was found laying on the floor. Once inside, the burglar also pried open the office door, and took a bank bag along with an envelope containing cash. In all, the thief got away with about 43-hundred dollars.

The store owner told sheriff deputies the name of a person he believes may have committed the crime, offering the explanation that he and the suspect have an ongoing disagreement that's run the last month or more. So far, deputies have unable to interview the man. The store's security cameras were on the fritz, so there's no tape of the burglary. The deputy investigating the crime reminded the owner it's probably a good idea to get those cameras fixed.

First Mailbox Vandalism of the Year
Wilkes county has recorded its first mailbox vandalism of the year. It happened less than 24 hours into the new year, says Jimmy Roberts. he tells sheriff deputies he heard a gunshot outside his home on New Years Evening about 10pm. Tuesday morning, he went to check the mail -- apparently forgetting there was no mail Tuesday because of the Federal Day of Mourning. When he got to the mailbox, he found it had ben hit by a shotgun blast. Deputies say they have no suspects.

Counterfeit Checks
Wilkesboro Police are working two counterfeit check cases. The first was reported last Saturday at Lowes Foods on Winkler Street. The store manager, Keith Royal, called police when a check supposedly written by a Morganton woman bounced, and was returned by the bank as a forgery. The account number on the check was not the account of the woman. She has filed a sworn affidavit that she did not write the check, whcih was for 106-dollars.

The second case was reported New Years Eve. The Four Brothers Store on Western Lane tried to process a 148-dollar check, but their verification machine denied authorization on it. The person trying to pass the check had written a zero after the bank account number at the bottom of the check. The store manager says he knew the person in question had an account at that bank, but to his knowledge it hadn't had any money it it for a year. The cashier called her supervisor when the check was declined, and given authority to take the check anyway. It was returned by the bank, though, as a counterfeit.

It's unclear if the cases are related. Both remain under investigation.

Wanted Men Run Off, Are Captured Later
A tip to sheriff deputies led to a pair of wanted men -- but not before the men tried to run away again. A sheriff deputy says he received a phone call that David Bryan Spears and Ronnie Allen Spears, who were both wanted on felony warrants, had just left a home about a mile from where the deputy happened to be. As the deputy was driving up highway 115 near Fishing Creek Road, the fugitives turned off Bells Mill Road, so he turned around and turned on his lights and siren. The driver turned onto Fishing Creek Road and stopped, but as the deputy walked toward it to arrest the men, they jumped out and ran. A crime report does not indicate the deputy gave chase at that time, but about six hours later, the Spears were taken into custody without incident.

Fugitive Arrested
A Wilkesboro police Sergeant arrested a woman wanted on 13 warrants yesterday afternoon. 40-year old Elaine Betty Bumgartner of North WIlkesboro was found at the Run-In on River Street about 4:25 yesterday afternoon. The sergeant says he received information that she was returning to town and the county had outsanding warrants on her. Armed with a vehicle description, he stated cruising parking lots looking for her. One he found Bungartner, the sergeant also found out she was driving on a revoked license, in addition to being wanted for the warrants.

Tool Shed Burglarized
The victim of a break-in yesterday at an equipment storage lot on Boathouse Bottom Road says the burglar had to be an ex-employee or someone who knows an awful lot about the business. A number of tools belonging to an Environmental Services company out of Taylorsville were stolen, after the thief broke into the storage shed using a piece of metal that was on the ground nearby. The tools were pushed out underneath the chain-link fence that surrounds the property. The things that points to an ex-employee or someone who really knows their stuff, is that only working tools were stolen from the shed. There were a number of tools needing repair in the shed, and they were left alone. Deputies are still looking for a man who was let go from the company recently, so they can question him.

Mother-in-Law Beaten
It took two sheriff deputies to quell a fight last night, sue to the number of people involved. The deputies were called to a home on Fields Road near North WIlkesboro nust before midnight. They found a large group of people fighting in the front yard. Once the deputies got everyone separated and calmed down, they found out the fight was prompted by a man slugging his mother-in-law. Apparently 28-year old Michael Kennedy had broken in the front door not long before, and chased the woman around the house, punching her repeatedly. He threw her telephone out into the yard so she couldn't call for help. But he forgot her cell phone. The woman used that to call her boyfriend, who called 9-1-1. Deputies report the woman was cut on the side of the face, and they have the statement of a neighbor across the street who saw it all happen. Kennedy is charged with assault on a female, a misdemeanor.

Drug Arrests
Wilkesboro Police say a new years weekend party got a bit out of hand, leading several officers to be called to the River's Edge Skate Park and finding several people evidently high on marijuana. Eight people were reported at the park early Saturday, and when officers arrived at the suspicious persons call, they easily smelled the scent of marijuana smoking. Three in the group were cited for drug possession or possession of drug paraphernalia, after being searched by officers. They are all 18-years old. Andrew Kevin King, Lucas Carl Otero, and John Timms Prigmore are all from out of town. All told, officers confiscated about half an ounce of marijuana.

Cars, Guns Stolen
The sheriff's office is investigating a reported vehicle theft. On Tuesday afternoon, Ronald Pettis called deputies after he got home from a two-week holiday trip, to report that both his vehicles had been stolen while he was gone. In addition to the 2003 Chevy Silverado pickup and 1994 Corvette, Pettis told deputies the thief had broken into his house and stolen a gun safe containing 15 pistols and rifles. Total loss is nearly 50-thousand dollars.

Pettis gave deputies the names two possible suspects -- men that had been around his place shortly before he left on the trip. When Wilkes deputies called Alexander County, deputies there said they knew where both vehicles were, and contacted the men, who said Pettis had given them the vehicles. The men had the titles to the pickup and Corvette as proof. The case is still under investigation.

Deputies Assaulted
Two Wilkes sheriff deputies were assaulted by a man as they took him into custody Tuesday morning. The deputies were part of a group of four who ended up at the scene of a reported assault on Statesville Road about 2 a-m. A 25-year old woman told deputies she had been choked and punched by her boyfriend, 34-year old Donald Costa. They could clearly see red marks and fingerprints on her neck, and she had a black eye, which was swollen shut.

Costa had run out the door as deputies showed up. One of them took the woman to Wilkes Regional Medical Center, where doctors found she had no broken bones or permanent damage from the choking. As he returned her home, Costa showed up, leading to a short foot chase across Highway 115 and into the woods. Once the two deputies corralled Costa, they handcuffed him in front, so he could maintain his balance as they led him back to the squad car.

But he slipped and fell, maybe on purpose, the deputies aren't sure. As they helped him up, Costa swung his cuffed hands at the deputies, hitting both in the face and breaking open one's lip. Costa is jailed on single counts of assault by strangulation and resisting arrest, and two counts of assaulting an officer.

Newspaper Rack Burglarized
Another newspaper rack has been broken into in Wilkesboro. At least this time, the thieves left the rack where it was. A carrier reports that sometime between Friday night and Sunday morning, the lock was cut off the Journal-Patriot rack in the 33-hundred block of west 421 and the money was stolen from inside. The carrier believes two people who he's seen hanging around the convenience store are the thieves, and he gave police their description and the type of car they were driving. He says the two frequent the area, and are often acting suspiciously. Police hope to review the convenience store security cameras, but aren't sure if the cameras cover the newspaper rack location.

Fatal Crash
Authorities may never know why a Millers Creek woman pulled out in front of an oncoming truck Friday afternoon. The resulting wreck killed her instantly. It happened on Highway 268 at Stokes Street. According to the accident report released Wednesday, 33-year old Pamela Carol Kilby was sitting at a the stop sign on Stokes waiting for traffic on 268 to clear. For some reason, she pulled out, apparently to make a left hand turn, just as a westbound semi entered the intersection.

The truck driver slammed on the brakes, but there was no time to react and he crashed into the driver's side door of Kilby's Pontiac, killing her. The car and semi slid for some distance west of the intersection. Rescue crews had to extricate Kilby from the wreckage. According to the report, she had no known medical condition, and when the truck driver saw her, she was at a complete stop at the sign. Her funeral service was held Monday.

Theft Leads to Chase, More Charges
A simple, nearly open-and-shut case of theft turned into much more, when the suspect ran off while he was being questioned by sheriff deputies. That led to a short foot chase in which the deputy lost track of the man. He knew who the accused criminal was, though, and deputies caught up with Billy Dee Walker at his home a while later.

Walker is accused of stealing aluminum wire, plastic conduit and aluminum fan shutters from a rural North Wilkesboro rental home owned by Tam Hutchinson. The break-in and burglary was reported about mid-day Tuesday. While he was taking the theft report,t eh deputy was told Walker had just sold some scrap at Wilkes Steel, an allegation confirmed by a phone call to Tony Byrd at the business. The deputy found Walker in a cul-de-sac on Richardson Road and interviewed him, at which time Walker admitted taking the items. But he sprinted off, telling the deputy he had no intention of going to jail. That led to the chase, and his being arrested later. So in addition to charges of property damage, breaking and entering, and theft, Walker now faces a scahrge of resiting arrest.

ATV Theft
A Wilkes man reports his four-wheeler has been stolen. Joseph Michael Curtis called deputies on New Years Day, saying the four-wheeler had been parked behind his house on Speedway Road for the past two weeks, but was now missing. It's a red, 1999 Honda 400 EX, and the serial number has been entered in the national crime database in case it ever shows up. His father says the four-wheeler was there as recently as 7pm New Years Eve. The case remains under investigation.

Man's Savings Stolen
Keeping your savings in a mason jar...it sounds like something people did a long time ago, but the fact is, it still happens today. In fact, a man just had 8-thousand dollars stolen from his savings jar. Allen Shepherd reported the theft New Years Day. He says he went to put money in his savings jar and realized a lot had been taken out -- eighty, 100-dollar bills to be exact. He doesn't know when it was taken though -- it could have happened any time in December. Shepherd says a home health nurse working for him quit without notice recently, and his nephew found the jar several years ago. The nephew says he didn't take the cash, and deputies have not been able to contact the home health nurse. The case remains under investigation.

West Wilkes Band Honored
A group of local high school students is riding high after an excellent showing at at a holiday bowl game. The West Wilkes Marching Band took home second place over the holidays at the Chick-Fil-A Bowl. Drum Major James Bowlin was named the best drum major out of 18 bands from 12 states. The Band Boosters would like to thank everyone who gave and made the trip to the bowl game possible.

Lower Natural Gas Bills
The warm winter has led to lower natural gas rates this month across most of North Carolina. Piedmont Natural Gas and PSNC Energy dropped rates this month by 6 to 7.5 percent -- a savings of roughly $10 a month for a typical bill. Customers are now on track to spend about $150 less this winter on natural gas than from record rates a year ago.

And more savings could come. The National Weather Service is predicting much higher temperatures than normal over the rest of the winter in the Northeast and Midwest, which uses the bulk of the nation's heating fuels. In North Carolina, November and December were among the warmest in the past decade, according to NWS data.

Natural gas commodity trading prices, which help determine wholesale costs for utilities, have fallen 30 percent since late November. That pushed Piedmont and PSNC to lower rates in January because utilities' profit margins are set by state regulators.

They Took the Meds, and the Mailbox, Too!
While thefts of small amounts of prescription drugs are a frequent happening in Wilkes, one thief took an extra step or two over the weekend. Sheriff deputies were called Fridy afternoon by Charles Handy, who lives in Moravian Falls. He told them he'd been out of town for a couple of days, and when he returned home, he found his entire mailbox had been stolen. He expected to receive a 90-day supply of three medications while he was out of town, but he's not sure if they arrived before the mailbox was taken or not.

It's unknown if the thief was following the mail delivery person, or just came along late and found the medicines -- but whoever it was didn't get much. Not that the drugs were inexpensive -- just that they weren't the painkillers thieves normally go after. Deputies have no suspects.

Break-in, Family Member Accused
A Wilkes man blames a family member for a break-in at his house early Saturday. The man had gone to visit a friend locally on Friday night, and returned home just after midnight to find the break-in. The thief had stolen three knives, eight different medications including a heart drug and pain killers, and fifty zippo lighters, valued at 1-thousand dollars. The man told sheriff deputies the name of the family memebr he believes is responsible; we aren't identifying the victim because doing so would identify the suspect, who has not been arrested yet.

Duke Spins Off Gas Delivery Arm
Duke Energy's natural gas delivery and storage network has been spun off, marking a major milestone in the transformation of the utility that serves much of Wilkes into a pure energy-generation company. Duke's vast natural gas delivery and storage network, officially became stand-alone Spectra Energy today and begins trading today on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol SE.

Houston-based Spectra, with more than $21 billion in assets, represents Duke's latest move toward becoming and growing as a power-generation company. The process was started in 2003 and included the $9 billion merger in April with Ohio-based power company Cinergy Corp.

As well, Duke Energy Field Services -- a separate natural gas operation owned jointly by Duke and ConocoPhillips -- became DCP Midstream with Duke's half interest transferred to Spectra.

The effect on rates of Duke's shift to being a generation-only company has yet to be seen.

Violent Outburst
A sheriff deputy ended up listing himself as one of the victims in his report of a recent violent outburst. The deputy was called to a disturbance outside North Wilkesboro last week. The people who had called in the argument had left the house be the time the deputy got there, but a man who was still there readily admitted he'd hit a woman in the eye.

The deputy went out in search of the woman and found her and another woman walking on the side of th road. The deputy stopped and talked witht he women, and as he did, the man approached, his fist balled up as if he were going to hit the second woman. The deputy arrested Quinn Powers and transported him to jail.

He says after Powers was booked into jail, he fought the deputy as he tired to escort him from the booking area to the jail. The deputy had to take Quinn down to get him back under control. So now Quinn stands charged with Assault on a woman, making a threat of violence, and resisting an officer of the law.

Job-site Theft
A construction worker from Statesville came back to a Wilkes county job site last week to find someone had stolen a number of items belonging to him. Richard Sykes says he left the job site Wednesday night and left a couple of space heaters behind, along with a drop light and gas can. He came back Friday morning to find the items missing.

Sykes says each of the space heaters was worth about 280-dollars. One was red, the other is was orange. Total value of the loss is 620-dollars. No one near the Moravian Falls construction site says they saw anything out of place Wednesday night or Thursday. Deputies continue their investigation.

Idle Hands and All
You know what they say about idle hands being the devil's playground. The cliche proved itself last week as three junior high school kids used part of their Christmas break to vandalize several school buses at Traphill Elementary.

Sheriff deputies were called to the school Thursday. School faculty had found the boys hiding among the school buses, some of which had been shot with a paint ball gun. Two paint ball guns were found aboard one of the buses. The boys sheepishly admitted to what they'd done, and the school says all three will be back from break a bit early, spending today cleaning up the mess they caused on the buses.

The sheriff's office won't file vandalism charges unless the boys don't clean up the buses as they've promised.

Christmas Evening Fire Ruled Arson
A recent fire just outside North Wilkesboro has been ruled the act of an arsonist. Nick Hamby with the Fire Marshals office filed his report on the Christmas Day fire late last week. Mountain View Firefighters were called to the 500 block of Royal Road about 6:30 in the evening, and had to break into the single-wide mobile home to fight the fire.

Hamby says the damage from the fire was limited mostly to the wall in the living room and kitchen area of the home. Still, over 4-thousand dollars worth of damage is reported to personal property, along with 5-thousand dollars damage to the house itself.

The people who live in the mobile home were out of town visiting relatives at the time fo the fire. Hamby says there were signs that fire had been set in several locations inside the home, so the blaze was definitely the work of an arsonist. The case remains under investigation.

Meth Cooks Dump their Trash
Sheriff deputies say some people who run a meth-making lab dumped the by-products of thier work on a local roadside recently. Deputies were called to the 85-hundred block of Sheets Gap Road Thursday afternoon, after Keith Reeves found several trash bags on his property. The items inside the bags were things such as matches, solvent, hydrogen peroxide, a rubber tube, and empty pseudoephedrine packages.

Getting caught with the stuff could lead to a felony charge, depending on the circumstances, but because the trash bags were simply found on someone's property, and the items in them can be thrown away individually in any garbage dumpster, if the suspects were ever caught, it's likely the most they could be charged with in this case would be littering.

Employee Accused of Stealing
Wilkesboro Police are looking into the reported theft of money by an employee of a local convenience store. The manager of the store has been keeping an eye on one employee, and after the woman went home for the day on Thursday, the manager counted the money in her cash drawer. It was 31-dollars less than it should have been. The manager says the drawers was correct at 7:30 that morning, and the shortage developed over less than three hours, as the employee left at 10:15 am. We're not releasing the employee's name, because she has not been charged with a crime yet. The case is still under investigation.

New Homes Bolster County Tax Rolls
Imagine fishing in miles of pristine trout streams near a 300-foot waterfall, then walking home to a luxury log home and drinking rainwater.

That idyllic picture is part of the marketing pitch for Cielo Falls, a second-home mountain community where filtered, treated rainwater will be the main water source for the homes. But it also represents a way that Wilkes County is bouncing back from losses of its manufacturing and industrial-jobs base.

Wilkes County Manager Gary Page says that new development such as Cielo Falls, Laurelmor and other mountain communities will add about $800,000 in new tax revenue next year just for the lots.

"The better news is that when they build those $500,000 to $1.5 million homes, it will be more," he told the Winston-Salem Journal recently. He estimates that mountain developments will create an additional $250,000 in tax revenue over each of the next six years or so in Wilkes County.

Oops, Forgot About the Alarm
Sheriff deputies say it appears a burglar alarm did its job and scared off a thieves at a local convenience store last week. Early Wednesday morning, someone threw a concrete block through the plate glass door at the Food Mart on Highway 421 West. But that's all the further the burglar went, as the alarm started sounding.

Deputies looked over the store's security tape with the owner, and say it appears two black men in their late teens or early 20's are the culprits. They drove off in a small white pickup with a camper top. So far deputies have not identified the vehicles or the intended thieves.

Party Crasher -- Er, Slasher
A recent incident puts a new twist on the phrase "crashing a party." A Hays man tells sheriff deputies he was the victim of a tire slashing, done by a new neighbor mad that the man wouldn't let him in to "party" with him. 18-year old Justin Harrold says he woke up about 3:30 in the morning, to hear the neighbor stumbling around near his car, drunk and irate.

He'd just met the man for the first time earlier in the evening, and told him he couldn't come into his home. Harrold says later in the day, he found all four tires on his car had been slashed, and he believes his neighbor, 20-year old Garret Kisler, is to blame. So far, Kisler has not been arrested.

Kids Home at Time of Fight
Deputies say three children witnessed a recent assault, as two men got into a fight at a Hays home. Someone in the house called 9-1-1 during the fight, saying one of the men had a knife and was threatening to kill the other. When deputies got there, the knife had disappeared, but the men were still going at it, yelling and screaming at one another.

Once things got calmed down enough deputies could talk to people, Scott Allison told them he had been choked by 35-year old Scott Bolte, before the man had pulled a knife on him and threatened to kill him. Allison's wife Cindy was on the phone at the time and heard Bolte threaten her husband, and make the same threat toward her if she came home. Deputies say Allison was watching the couple's three children, ages 5, 3 and 11 months, at the time of the fight. Bolte was arrested without further incident and booked on charges of assault and communicating threats.

Wilkesboro Assault
Two North Wilkesboro men were arrested, after police say they assaulted a man in a local parking lot while his children watched. LUis Castillo and Jose Onteveros were arrested Saturday night in the Goody's parking lot, and jailed on a 1-thousand dollar bond.

Police were called to the parking lot about 11 Saturday night. Boomer resident William Don Harris told officers he had been asked for a cigarette by one of the men, who had walked up to his car. He told him he didn't have one. After a verbal confrontaion that included the man sticking an arm inside the car, the man left. A short time later, he and the second man walked up to the car, and the second man, after being told by the first to beat up Harris, proceeded to try to do so. But Harris started the car and sped off.

He came back to the Goody's parking lot a while later to pick up his wife. The two men got in a pickup and chased him around the parking lot, making two full circles before giving up. Harris found a sheriff deputy nearby and reported the crime. The deputy called police on the radio, and they went to the Goody parking lot and arrested the two men.

Tools Stolen
A Purlear man says someone stole about 2-thousand ollars worth of proeprty form him. Dennis
Tyson tells sheirff deputies he believes he knows who took the items from his house Friday evening. Tyson says he and his family went to Boone Friday evening and returned home to find a Rigid Air Compressor, a Dewalt Miter Saw, a Dewalt Table saw, and a laser guide missing. He tells deputies the suspect has taken items from him before. So far, there have been no arrests.

Credit Card Fraud
A retired Wilkesboro woman says someone used her social security number to get a credit card, then spent over 12-hundred dollars. Gladys Castle says she lost her social security card in WalMart a couple of months ago, but never reported it to anyone. She didn't think much of it until she started getting calls forma credit card compan last week. They were demanding payment of a bill totaling 12-hundred-38 dollars. The company told her the purchase had been made at one time, in WalMart on October 9th. Castle filed a police report on the credit card fraud, and is working with the card company to resolve the matter. So far, police have not identified a suspect in the case.

Injury Crash
A Christmas Eve accident resulted in one person being taken to Wilkes Regional Medical Center by ambulance. Wilkesboro Police say Ricky Lee Faw fell asleep driving back from Boone Sunday afternoon, and went off the righ-hand side of Highway 421 near Congo Road. He slid through the right ditch, narrowly missing a guard rail, and plowed into a fire hydrant, where he came to rest. Faw was the only person in the car at the time, and he was teaken to the hospital to be checked for minor injuries. Police issued him a ticket for unsafe movement.

Soda Machine Stolen
Thieves have hit another Wilkes soda machine -- and this time, rather than simply breaking in, they loaded up the entire amchine and hauled it off. The crime was reported Christmas Eve morning at the Roaring River Fire Station. One of the firefighters drove up to the station to find the front of the building damaged and the Pepsi machine missing. Deputies believe the thieves hit the machine with a vehicle to break it off its mounting bolts. They pushed the machine into the fire station, damaging some siding and a window frame. Then the thieves loaded up the machine and hauled it off. The firefighter reporting the teft had three possible suspect names for deputies, and a location where he thought the machine could have been dumped. So far, deputies have not located the machine, valued at 4-thousand dollars, and have not made any arrests. The case remains under investigation.

Officer Used as Human Shield
A Wilkesboro police officer responding to a domestic disturbance at Lowes motel recently found himself being used as a human shield. Ronda Meadows called 9-1-1 Firday evening, reporting that her boyfriend Alfred Vannoy was beating her up. When the officer arrived, she ducked behind him, screaming for help. The officer says she showed obvious signs of having been assaulted, including multiple bruises around her eyes and face. Meadows told the officer Vannoy had started beating her out of jealousy, because he thought she was cheating on him. Police say Vannoy has had a history of this type of activity. He is being held without bond in the county jail.

Injury Crash Tuesday
A two-car crash Tuesday resulted in one driver being hurt, but refuding medical treatment. Karen Joy Draper of Kill Devil Hills was northbound on highway 421 near NC 268, and was passing a semi on the right. The semi driver changed lanes and did not see Draper's car, whcih was in his blind spot. She was forced into a guard rail, where her car spun around once and ended up facing south in the northbound lane. The semi driver was ticketed for an unsafe lane change. He was not injured.

Counterfeit Bens
Another counterfeit 100-dollar bill has turned up in a Wilkesboro business's bank deposit. A teller at Northwestern Bank made the discovery yesterday, as she counted the deposit made by a local grocery store. It's the second time recently that Wilkesboro Police have been notified of counterfeit bills showing up in bank deposits. As in the first case, the original bill has been turned over to the Secret Service. Because the bills aren't being detected until they reach the bank, there are currently no suspects in the case.

Gas Theft
Sheriff deputies arrested a Boomer man late Friday after it was reported he'd stolen a knife from a friend's kitchen and used it to cut the gas lines on an RV and siphon out the gas. 33-year old Brian Keith Hamby was found at the Wilkesboro Food LIon driving a van sith a stolen tag on it as well.

Friday evening, Jim Myers called deputies to report the gasoline theft. He'd been called by a woman, who told deputies Hamby had taken a steak knife out of a drawer in her kitchen and left. He returned later and tried to burn some clothing that had gotten gas splashed on it during the theft. He was not successful in burning the clothes, though, and deputies recovered them as evidence in the case. Deputies arrested Hamby without incident and charged him with stealing 200-dollars worth of gas from the RV, along with the 200-dollars worth of damage to the cut gas lines.

Fatal Christmas Fire in Lenoir
Two people died Christmas morning in a house fire on Lenoir. It happened about 8:15 am at a house in the 12-hundred block of Meadowlark Lane. The house was engulfed when firefighters arrived on the scene, said Lenoir Fire Department Lieutenant and Public Information Officer Sam Smith.

Firefighters found 58-year old Corene Myer and 52-year old Gary Moody dead in the house. Investigators believe the couple tried to get out a kitchen door. An autopsy will confirm the cause of death. Myers’ son, Alan Holsclaw, also was living at the home. Smith says he kicked out a window to escape the burning home. Holsclaw suffered some smoke inhalation and was treated at the scene. The house and contents were destroyed. Firefighters were on the scene for nearly six hours.

An official origin and cause hasn't been released, but investigators say they think the fire started from a wood stove. Because two people died, city police and state investigators are looking through the rubble along with fire investigators.

Booze It and Lose It
North Carolina state troopers are in the middle of a campaign aimed at keeping drunk drivers off the highways this holiday season.

The increased holiday patrols of the "Booze It Lose It" campaign run through New Year's Day. Troopers also planned to watch for reckless and aggressive drivers. "We try to be visible and available," said Sergeant Kelly Sturgill with the North Carolina Highway Patrol, "and try to saturate the highways as much as we can."

Troopers planned to conduct several DWI checkpoints on several nights through New Year's Day.

More Severe Weather Warnings in 2006
If it seemed like this year brought more severe weather warnings than usual, you're right. National Weather Service forecasters say they have issued more severe weather warnings in 2006 than any year since records have been kept in North Carolina. A Raleigh forecaster says that's not necessarily a sign the weather was any worse this year. In fact, it's been an average year.

But technology advances have led to better communication with spotters, resulting in warnings being issued today that would not have been issued 10 or 15 years ago, because they were simply unable to be seen on radar.

The Weather Service also says technology is allowing them to better localize warnings, which may result in a series of warnings being issued for parts of a county as large as Wilkes as a storm moves across, rather than the entire county being warned for a storm that only affects part of it.

Bragg Soldiers Going to Iraq
More North Carolina soldiers will be on the way to Iraq right after the New Year. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has signed orders that will send the 82nd Airborne Division's 2nd Brigade to Kuwait, before moving on to Iraq. The 82nd Airborne unit which would include as many as 3,300 soldiers will replace the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit, which had served as the reserve force based in Kuwait but has been deployed into Iraq.

Saw Stolen
A local laborer is without one of the key tools of his trade, after a thief stole a 13-hundred dollar block saw from him recently. Jason Lovette says the saw was in the bed of his pickup the last time he saw it, and when he went ot use it on a job, it had disappeared. He doesn't know who may have taken it. However, the Stihl block saw has two distinguishing marks -- an orange dot of pain on the breather cover and a number written in red sharpie on the case. Those identifying marks have been passed on to local pawn shop owners, in case the saw turns up at any of them.

Copper Wire Stolen
The high cost of copper, and its use in illegal activities, has led to another theft of a roll of copper wire in Wilkes County. Sam Hawkins tells sheriff deputies someone took a roll of wire from the bed of his work truck recently. He says the roll weighed between 30 and 60 pounds,a nd was worth about 80-dollars. Hawkins says his son noticed the wire was missing after the two visted an area convenience store to take a break from a job.

Christmas Day Fire Destroys Home

A Christmas Day fire has forced a rural Wilkes family out of their home, but firefighters say it was the grace of God that kept them from losing their lives. A visiting relative was asleep on the living room couch early Monday morning when she was awakened by smoke from a blaze that had started in some Christmas lights on the front porch. She was able to get the family out safely.

In spite of the work of firefighters in three departments -- Mulberry-Fairplains, Mountain View, and North WIlkesboro, the house and everything in it was lost. As they started to work on hot spots after bringing the fire under control, the Christmas Day loss moved firefighters to donate cash from their pockets to the family, identified by the Record as Jason and Pam Stamper and their 2 daughters, Chastity and Taylor.

Two firefighters left the scene and went shopping for the girls at Walgreens, still dressed in their turnout gear. Customers and employees of the store, upon learning of what had happened, opened their hearts and wallets, and by the time the Stampers had been taken back to the Mulberry fire station, the day room was filled with toys and gifts.

The Stampers are staying with relatives. They still have several needs, including clothes, towels and household items. For information on how you can help, contact the Red Cross.