Share-A-Thon A Huge Success!
This year’s 3WC Share-A-Thon was a rousing success, with more than 64-thousand, 500 dollars pledged during the two days of the event. To those who pledged, thank you, and please remember to fulfill the pledge by mailing your donation to The Home, PO Box 2777, North Wilkesboro, 28659.

Five Children Abandoned as Mother Seeks Drugs
The same weekend as good news came for abused and neglected children, several more children may have taken the first step to become involved in the system. The five, all under the age of 10, were sent to be with relatives, after four of them were found alone last night in a house on James Lane. The mother and the fifth child were seen by a deputy on Highway 18 a little while later, in the car with a man who had drugs and paraphernalia. The one-year old was not in a car seat.

The 27-year old mother was charged with child abuse, for leaving the four children at home with a fire burning in the wood stove and for not restraining the youngest child.

Deputies were at the home in the first place because they’d charged the children’s father earlier last night for causing a disturbance while he was drunk. The charges came after the man had been repeatedly warned by deputies to stay away from the house, because he and the children’s mother were continually fighting. It was during the arrest, which happened at the nearby Run-In store, that the man told deputies the children were being left alone while the mother went to buy drugs from the man she was arrested with.

Drunk and Disorderly -- All Over the Place!
It seemed to be the weekend for obnoxious drunks. Friday night, deputies charged Danny Wellborn with being drunk and causing a number of disturbances. He was going from place to place so fast he’d be gone before they could arrive after someone called 9-1-1 to complain about the noise and profanity.

Four times, deputies were called – first from Green Acres Mills Apartments, where someone said Wellborn had been trying to break into an apartment. Next, from Skipps in Millers Creek, where a caller said he was causing a disturbance. Then deputies found Wellborn at Bojangles in Miller’s Creek, after several people their complained about him causing a disturbance. They took him to his grandmothers house, and minutes later were called to Ruth’s Sandwich Shop, where someone reported Wellborn wandering across the road. They didn’t find him that time, but about two hours later, they received another call – this time from one of his grandmother’s neighbors, reporting Wellborn trying to break into the house the deputy had let him off at a few hours earlier.

Accused Counterfeiter May Have Tried To Pass 2nd Check
A man charged last week with trying to pass a counterfeit check at a local bank is suspected of a very similar case, where he allegedly gave a different name. Tellers at the bank say the man, who gave the name Lloyd Jackson, presented a 900-dollar check written on a Gastonia business to be cashed. The check was fake. It’s the same ruse used by a man identifying himself as Australia Miller, the man we told you about on 3WC News Friday who had been arrested for passing a counterfeit check. The bank and police are reviewing security tapes to verify whether it was the same man in both cases.

Steaks in the Purse
A cashier at Mountain View Grocery foiled a shoplifter Friday, but the woman ran from the store before sheriff deputies could arrive. The Mountain View manager, Eric Adams, reports the cashier saw four ribeye steaks in the woman’s purse as she tried to leave the store. She stopped the woman, who dashed form the store when Adams confronted her and said he was calling the sheriff. As she ran off, the steaks fell from her purse. She has been seen shopping in the store frequently, and employees don’t know her name, they suspect she has been stealing merchandise previously.

Armed Robbery Suspect Collared
Officers from three agencies teamed up to capture a robber yesterday afternoon, within minutes of the armed robbery he’s accused of committing. The robbery was reported about 3:30 yesterday afternoon in the parking lot at Lowes Foods on Highway 115. A woman said she’d been approached by a green van in the parking lot and asked by one of the occupants for directions to Statesville. When she wrote them down and handed them to the driver, he pointed a gun at her, grabbed her purse, and sped off.

The van, which matched the description of one involved in a purse-snatching last week, was found a while later on Cane Ridge Road near Moravian Falls Road, and were told by people in the house that the driver had run into the woods just minutes earlier. Deputies found Anthony Wayne Sheppard about 300 yards from the house, hiding in some undergrowth. When they took him back to the store, the victim positively identified Sheppard. A short while later, the purse was recovered, and the only items missing from it were the cash and several rings found on Sheppard.

Sheppard is jailed on an armed robbery charge, and is being held on a one-million dollar bond. Wilkesboro police continue to investigate his involvement with the earlier purse-snatching. The woman he’s accused of robbing yesterday was unhurt.

Check Fraud Stopped by Alert Teller
One of the things that often happens during a police investigation is that the suspect changes the story of how they came to be involved in the crime. A Wilkesboro Police officer heard three stories in the course of several minutes, after a man was caught trying to pass a counterfeit check yesterday at a local bank. 31-year old Australia Johnson Miller Junior first told the officer he’d received the check from the company it was supposedly written on, for doing some landscape work for them. Minutes later, the story was that he’d received the check in the mail form an unidentified person. In another few minutes, the story changed again – this time, the officer says, Miller told him he’d received the check at the soup kitchen in Charlotte, and that he was cashing it because he needed rent money. Before the story changed again, the officer searched Miller and found what may be the real explanation – a crack pipe in his pocket. Miller is in the county jail on a possession charge, along with a charge relating to the fake check.

Car Stolen, Found within Hours
Shortly after completing the paperwork on a car reported stolen yesterday, Wilkesboro Police located the car. It had been wrecked in western Wilkes County.

Maggie Jenkins tells police she left her mother’s car in the parking lot at Crossroads Harley, while she was at work. She’d been out to lunch with her mother, and left her keys and some banking information in the car so her mother could take some things to the bank. A friend dropped by to see her in the late afternoon, and though at first she wasn’t at work, because the car was gone. Turned out it had been stolen. When the police officer entered the stolen car into a national crime computer, it immediately came back as having been involved in a wreck at Elk Creek and Darby Road. Nobody was hurt in the wreck, and the car thief had disappeared.

Share-A-Thon in Progress
One more full day remains in the 25th annual 3WC Share-A-Thon to benefit Ebenezer Christian Children’s Home. Last year’s event raised more than 67-thousand dollars, and there is still plenty of time to stop by the 3WC studios and make your pledge for this year’s share-a-thon.

Teen Found at Boyfriend's Home
Good news regarding the missing child we told you about earlier today. Alex Spriggs, who is 15, was found in a home in Hallsboro with her boyfriend. He has been arrested.

Authorities say she walked to a gas station Sunday morning in search of a ride to her boyfriend’s house. She waited for 14 hours, calling him more than a dozen times from the store pay phone. She finally got into a pickup truck with a man late in the day. Police found him, and he told them he’d done as she had asked, dropping her off at her boyfriend’s house.

Share-A-Thon is Tomorrow & Saturday
Don’t forget, the annual 3WC Share-a-Thon for Ebenezer Christian Children’s Home is tomorrow and Saturday. The home just north of North Wilkesboro serves children from the ages of 3 to 21 who have become the victims of abuse and neglect. The children live at the home, often for a year or longer, and during that time learn the truth about love, what it means to be in a family, and about God. Your support last year helped raise over 67-thousand dollars to support the home, and we hope you’ll do your part to take donations even higher this year.

Drug Cases in Wilkesboro
Wilkesboro Police have worked several drug-related cases in the past couple of days. An office patrolling last night saw a disabled car, and pulled over to help. He recognized the driver, who has a history of driving on a revoked license. A search of Lisa Huntley’s car turned up aluminum foil that tested positive for cocaine. She was arrested and charged with possessing the drug and paraphernalia, and with driving on a revoked license.

Yesterday afternoon, a cleaning crew at the Holiday Inn Express found a crack pipe, after they had had to roust a woman from bed to get her to check out. They called 91-1-, and the responding office passed the woman walking away from the hotel. When he arrived and saw the crack pipe, he radioed to Detectives to pick up the woman. She denied the pipe was hers. A search of her person found a knife with cocaine residue. Then the woman told officers she had been sexually assaulted by a man and held against her will in a building in North Wilkesboro. Detectives there are folloing up on that accusation.

A third drug call occurred a short distance away, just a few minutes later. This time police were called for a suspicious person on foot in the area of US 421 and 421 Business. The responding officer saw Brandy Frazier, who matched the description given dispatchers, and stopped her. She asked the officer for a ride to another location in Wilkesboro. Before he let her in the car, the officer asked if she was carrying anything illegal or dangerous, and she produced a used insulin syringe. The officer then searched Frazier, and found more drug paraphernalia and some marijuana.

Bad Check for Car Deposit
A Wilkes man stands charged with check fraud, after a local car dealership says his deposit for a car purchase came back from the bank marked “Insufficient Funds.” The business manager at Empire Dodge tells police Timothy Secrest of Pilot Mountain wrote a 35-hundred dollar check to buy a car the first part of September. The check was returned by his bank. After trying unsuccessfully to contact Secrest for more than a month, the dealership turned the case over to police.

Plant Opens in Mt. Airy, More Jobs Expected
A new plant in Mount Airy is expected to bring the region several new jobs, in addition to the 40 people who started work there yesterday. Cascade Engineering opened a 110-thousand square foot plant yesterday, saying the demand for injection-molded components for large trucks will continue to grow. Company officials say they plan to expand the plant size by 50-percent in the upcoming years, and to add employees as demand grows.

ABCs Results Out
After saying early yesterday they wouldn’t release results of statewide school assessments until next week, state school officials reversed course and made the results public. They aren’t good, at least when taken at face value.

Statewide, 52 school are considered low-performing because students did poorly on standardized math testing. That’s up from just four schools a year ago. School officials expected that kind of news, because the state raised math standards for last year’s test. Nearly 90-percent of students had passed previous tests, while last year less than 70-percent made a passing grade.

In Wilkes County, these schools are listed by the state as having not met expected progress in the annual ABCs testing: Eller Elemntary, Millers Creek Elementary, North Wilkesboro Elementary, Roaring River Elementary, and Traphill Elementary. Middle and High School results were released earlier in the year.

Statewide Amber Alert Issued
The Amber alert originally issued in three North Carolina counties has been expanded statewide. The Brunswick county sheriff’’s office says 15-year old Alex Elizabeth Springs was abducted by an unknown white male yesterday afternoon. The two were last seen near Winnabow, in a Dodge Ram Extended Cab pickup along Highway 17.

Spriggs has brown hair and brown eyes, weighs 120 pounds and was last seen wearing a large puffy black coat with a pink shirt, blue jeans and black shoes. If you see her, call 9-1-1 immeditately.

More information, including a photo, is at the NC Crime Control Division web site.

Fire Cause Determined
Fire officials have determined the cause of a fire Sunday that totaled a Mulberry family’s home. Judy Hammond told firefighters she’d smelled smoke about 5 Sunday afternoon, and when she checked the closet next to her refrigerator, found a fire. As we told you Monday on 3WC News, the flames were leaping form the windows as firefighters from the Mulberry-Fairplains department pulled up. An investigation by Fire Marshall Nick Hamby has determined the fire started because an extension cord used to power the refrigerator overheated, catching items in the closet on fire. Red Cross has been assisting the Hammond family, who has no insurance.

HDU Called When Dynamite Fuund
Wilkes County’s Hazardous Devices Unit had to take and dispose of a dozen sticks of dynamite found in a West Jefferson man’s garage Monday morning. They were called to help execute a search warrant being served by the Ashe county sheriff department at the home of Michael Little. As they were searching the garage, deputies came across the dynamite, which had started deteriorating. They sprayed it with a neutralizing chemical and are storing the dynamite until ATF can trace it. Ashe County deputies will add a charge of possession of weapons of mass destruction to the existing charges against Little.

Drive-Thru Flu Shots Saturday
This Saturday, the Wilkes County Health Department will be holding its drive-thru flu clinic. Officials say there will be a couple of changes. The first is that the clinic has gone from one to two locations. Those locations are River’s Edge Park and North Middle School. Also, health officials say there will be almost three times the medical workers staffing the clinic, to help reduce wait times.

The drive-thru clinic opens at 7:30 Saturday, and will run until 3pm or until the supply of 2-thousand doses runs out. The shots cost 20-dollars, unless the recipient has Medicare, Medicaid, Partners or Humana coverage.

ABC's Report Late
State officials are delaying the release of the annual ABCs report of how schools fared in state testing last year. Changes in how the state calculates the numbers have many school administrators bracing for bad news. Math scores have declined because of the scoring change. The results were scheduled to be released today, but now state officials say it will be November 9th.

Pay for No Work Scam
Police say it’s important to remember, someone can’t just walk onto your property and do some work, then demand payment. It’s what happened to an elderly Purlear resident yesterday. The man told sheriff deputies two white men, about 30 to 40 years old, started waling around his lot, saying they were spraying for bugs. He hadn’t called an exterminator. When they finished walking around for a while, the men knocked on the victim’s front door and demanded 480-dollars pay for the job. The victim says they were fairly large men, and that he gave them everything he had – about 400-dollars. He doesn’t know the men, and they haven’t been seen since.

More Lawn Tools Stolen
Thieves just can’t seem to get enough of those tools to maintain their lawns! Officials at Mount Pleasant Elementary school say a thief took a John Deere mower, a leaf blower and a weed eater from a shed at the school sometime in the last week or 10 days. A janitor who discovered the lawn maintenance items missing said he’d been in the shed about a week before the theft was reported, and did not see anything missing.

Rapes Alleged at Baptist Medical Center
At least two people have filed sexual assault claims recently and said the attacks happened at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center.

Hospital officials and authorities with the Winston-Salem Police Department say only allegations have been made and that no charges have been filed.

The police department received a call about 12 hours after an alleged rape at the hospital September 5th, and another rape report was made October 15th. In a prepared release, hospital officials said “Based on what we have been able to learn and measures that have been taken, we feel there should be no personal safety concerns for any patient or visitor while at the hospital.”

Hamburger Bun Recall
Sara Lee is recalling hamburger buns produced in North Carolina because they contain milk and the label doesn’t say so. The Premium White Hamburger Buns are produced at the Sara Lee bakery in Valdese, and they are distributed throughout the Carolinas. Health officials say for those who are allergic to milk, the mistake could have serious health consequences. The only group of buns affected is Sara Lee Premium White Hamburger Buns with a September 10th production code date. You should return them to the store where you bought them. People who are not allergic to milk will not be affected at all.

Four-wheeler Recovered
Sheriff Deputies have recovered a four-wheeler stolen last week. The 1999 Honda four-wheeler, which was stolen from Paul Miller, was located yesterday in Union Grove. Investigation by sheriff deputies led to 16-year old Derek Scott Wyatt, 17-year old Michael Brett McGuire, and 17-year old Jamie Curtis Mobley. According to the updated crime report, the ignition switch on the four-wheeler was broken, but it was otherwise undamaged.

Another 4-Wheeler Stolen
Another four-wheeler was among the things stolen from a home on Sheets Gap Road late last week. A neighbor who looks after the property while the homeowner winters in Florida found the John Deere Gator ATV missing, along with a 200-gallon water tank and pump, and a child’s Gator ATV replica. The total loss reported Thursday was 86-hundred dollars. When a deputy called the owner in Florida, he said this was the third time someone has stolen items from his house. Deputies have no suspects or witnesses at this time.

Still Stealing Mowers
We hardly even need to use them anymore this year, and yet they’re still being stolen. A Hays woman reported to sheriff deputies yesterday that someone had gotten into the crawl space under her house and stolen the push mower she stored there. She’s been sick and unable to mow her lawn, so she’s not sure when in the past couple of months it was taken. She did tell deputies a 12-year old boy had been caught in the crawl space not long ago, but other than that, there is no information about a suspect.

Tough Graduation Requirements Loom
Tough new graduation requirements face public school students in Wilkes. And they’re high-stakes, too, meaning the student won’t get a diploma if they aren’t met.

For instance, starting in 20-10 every senior in a North Carolina public high school will have to complete an individual research project and present it in front of a group. Starting next January, every senior will have to pass an end-of-course test in every core subject.

Salmonella Outbreak
State and local health officials say a Salmonella outbreak that has affected 172 people nationwide so far is hitting close to home. In a news release, North Carolina is listed as one of 18 states where the cases originated. Health officials say thorough hand washing before cooking is one of the best ways to prevent spread of the disease. This outbreak appears to be carried on produce, but no specific types of produce or locations where they were grown have been identified.

Teen Births Down
Teen pregnancy rates in Wilkes County are down, but health officials say they still have work to do. Numbers released this week show the rate in Wilkes is down by 4-point-2 percent, matching a trend in most of North Carolina. There were a few counties statewide that showed an increase in teen pregnancies last year.

Still Critical
The man hit by a car Monday morning in Wilkesboro remains in critical condition, according to
Baptist Hospital officials. Richard Elledge was found near Curtis Bridge Road and Brookwood about 2 a-m Monday, bleeding from the head. Charges are still pending in the case.

Radiators Stolen
More radiators have been stolen from vehicles in Wilkes. Richard Burchette told sheriff deputies yesterday that sometime in the past few weeks, radiators have been cut out of eight vehicles on his property. He doesn’t know exactly when it happened, because he lives in Statesville and only comes to Wilkes a few times a week.

Items Taken from Towed Car
Deputies say something else was taken from a car over the weekend – in fact, several somethings have disappeared. They were called yesterday just before noon, by Rainel Mena, who told them he had discovered two necklaces, one of them worth nearly 19-hundred dollars and the other worth 250-dollars, had been taken from his car along with a cell phone. He had been arrested on Friday for an unrelated crime, and his wife passed on the information about the theft to him. She said the garage that towed the car saw someone in it over the weekend. Deputies are looking for that woman.

One-Stop Ends Saturday
This is the last full week before the election, and it’s also the last week you can take advantage of the one-stop absentee voting offered by the Wilkes County Election Board. It’s open from 8:30 to 5 weekdays through this Friday, and on Saturday from 8:30 to 1. The locaiton is the County Commissioner’s Room on the first floor of the Wilkes County Office Building in Wilkesboro.

4-wheelers Stolen
Two Wilkes residents report they’ve had four-wheelers stolen recently.

Paul Miller and Allen Glenn both tell sheriff deputies the ATV’s were taken last week. Miller, who lives in Miller’s Creek, says his Honda four-wheeler was apparently rolled out of the garage and onto a waiting vehicle. The thief also stole a leaf blower. The key was not in the four-wheeler, so area Honda Motorsports dealers have been told to keep an eye out for anyone trying to get that particular key cut.

Glen Allen says his 1987 Honda ATV was taken from an outbuilding on his property. Interestingly, it was the only one of three in the building to be stolen – in fact one of the other ATV’s was moved out of the way so the thief could make off with the Honda.

Winter Energy Assistance to Come Soon
You wouldn’t know it with the nice weather slated for the next couple of days, but winter is on the way to the foothills. The approach of winter means it’s time for those needing some help with utility bills to make applicaiotn for federal money that will help out.

The Low Income Energy Assistance Program is an income-based program that provides payment to food-stamp eligible families to have their heating costs paid automatically. To receive benefits a family has to have been on Food Stamps the end of September and certified through the end of October.

Wilkes County Department of Social Services will take applications form other families starting a week from today at the Department of Social Service soffice, and also next Wednesday and Thursday at The Town Hall Meeting Room in Ronda.

Man Hit By Car, Injuries Critical
A Wilkes man is in critical condition today after being hit early this morning by a car. Police say they found 49-year old Richard Elledge laying on the side of the road near Brookwood Lane and Curtis Bridge Road about 2 this morning.

They were called by 35-year old Casey Rayford Walker, who has been listed as a suspect. It toook them a while to find Elledge, because Walker apparently called them from somewhere along Highway 18 North, saying a man had run over near Lowes Hotel. But he could not tell dispatchers exactly where Elledge was. Finally, Walker showed up at the jail, and was asked to escort police to the scene.

When they arrrived, they found Elledge on the ground, suffering from a critical head injury. He was rushed to Wilkes Regional Medical Center, then on into Baptist in Winston-Salem, where he’s reported in critical condition today.

As they questioned Walker, police learned he had gone to Elledge’s house to buy some pills. He said the car he’d been driving at the time was at a local church, which North Wilkesboro Police secured until an investigator could come to the scene. The case is listed as under investigation, and no arrests have been made at last check.

Fire Displaces 7
A weekend fire has displaced a family of seven from their home in Mulberry. The fire was called in about 5 yesterday afternoon, and Mulberry-Fairplains Fire Chief Rick Gamble says an addition to the house was engulfed when they arrived. Gamble says the house is a total loss, though the family may recover some belongings from part of it. The Red Cross is helping the Hammond family with a place to stay and some clothes. If you’d like to help, call the Red Cross.

Sparta Road Fire Cause: Arson
Arson is the cause of a fire last week on Sparta Road. The fire a week ago yesterday was set in the north end of the unoccupied home, according to a report from Fire Marshall Niki Hamby. The owner said no one had lived in the house for about two months, but it was full of property. Damage to those items is valued at 10-thousand dollars. The arson remains under investigation.

Seven Arrested in Drug Raid
Sheriff Deputies have arrested seven people they found in a drug house on Statesville Road this weekend. In the process of the arrest Saturday night, it appears they have solved several crimes, including at least one from outside Wilkes County.

The arrests came as the result of a search warrant. When deputies raided the home, they found large amounts of cocaine and marijuana, along with a John Deere Gator stolen from Rowan County and a Honda motorcycle stolen from Lenoir.

Deputies also seized large amounts of cash, a police scanner and other surveillance equipment, and a Cadillac. Each of the seven people faces a list of drug-related charges.

Fake Money Orders
A police officer walking through the Wal-Mart parking lot this weekend was stopped by the store manager, who told him they’d just found a woman had been cashing fake money orders. Over a period of days, the manager said, the woman had cashed five money orders worth 700-dollars apiece. She identified the woman as a 38-year old local resident, but that person has not yet been arrested. The case remains under investigation.

Wilkes Man on State 9-1-1 Board
A Wilkes man now sits on the board that oversees 9-1-1 system enhancements statewide. Slayton Stewart was recently appointed by state Senator Marc Basknight to serve on the North Carolina Wireless 9-1-1 Board. The board was created in 1998, according to a news release, to help the state comply with a federal mandate to enhance services available to cellular callers to 9-1-1. Officials estimate one in four emergency calls statewide now come from cell phones.

Pizza Hut Manager Jailed
A heated argument between a manager and his employee comes to blows, and ends with the manager going to jail for assaulting the employee. It happened early Saturday morning, as Pizza Hut in Wilkesboro was closing.

Police say manager Coy Edward Pack confronted one of his delivery people, Randy Reeves, about taking too long to make his last delivery run. He accused Reeves of using his work to cover up delivering drugs. According to Pack, Reeves stepped up to him in the heat of the argument, and Pack hit him once, in self defense.

Reeves tells a different story. He says the manager hit him several times, driving him to the ground, where the man kicked him at least once. Reeves says he ran outside then, to wait for police.

A couple of hours later, police say they served a warrant for assault on Pack without incident, and he turned himself in a short time later at the detention center.

Stolen Property Recovered Quickly
In spite of not making a theft report for several months until after it happened, a man saw his property recovered within hours of making the report. Leon Baugess called deputies Sunday morning, saying two items stolen from his campsite sometime between June and the first of this month. He told deputies who he thought had stolen the propane tank and a wagon, both of which had distinctive markings, according to the deputies.

They went to a house on Traphill Road and found the wagon outside, where a friend had told Baugess it was. They arrested Richard Carl Billings and Shannon Marie Billings on previous warrants, and found the propane tank at the house as well. Both now stand charged with theft and possession of stolen property.

Counterfeit Check Passed
An alert bank teller became suspicious, and that was all it took for a woman trying to cash a counterfeit check to vanish. The teller at Bank of Granite called 9-1-1 Friday afternoon. She told Wilkesboro Police a woman had walked into the bank and asked to cash the check, but her instincts told her there was a problem with the document. She told the woman to wait a minute while she verified the check. When she turned around, the woman dashed from the bank. Although the woman was caught on the bank’s security tapes, no one has been able to identify her so far. She’s described as a black woman, about 5-6, 150 pounds, with short-cropped black hair. A clothing description is not given.

Fall Back
This is the weekend we all turn our clocks back to Eastern Standard Time. Firefighters recommend that each spring when you set the clocks forward and each fall when you set the clocks back, you change the batteries in your smoke detectors. And this is also a good time to change the battery in your carbon monoxide detector, because the winter heating season is just getting underway. Remember, this will be the last year time change happens the last weekend of October – starting next year, we’ll “fall back” the first weekend of November.

Farmer Tax Guide Available
If you’re one of the more than 49-thousand farmers in North Carolina who filed tax returns last year, the IRS says you can get a head start on this year’s taxes. The Farmer’s Tax Guide for 2006 was released this week. The guide explains a number of tax law changes this year and gives a heads-up on the changes slated to take effect next year. Contact the IRS at 800-TAX-FORM to request a copy.

Items Stolen, Recovered within 2 Hours
Sheriff Deputies recovered a lock box full of stolen items within a couple of hours of the theft Wednesday night. A man tells deputies he gave Thomas Porter and Randy Luffman a ride from Wal-Mart to Tanglewood Lane. The security box, which contained money and a number of prescription drugs, was in the car. While he was at the house, the man tells deputies Porter and Luffman borrowed his car keys, saying they’d left a pack of cigarettes in the car. He left, and about half an hour later, noticed the box was missing.

Within an hour, deputies had located Porter and Luffman at a friend’s house. They recovered the lock box and discovered a key had been broken off in the lock. The other half of the key was in Porter’s pocket. The friend whose house they were at claimed the items in the box belonged to her. Police arrested Elizabeth Sheppard and charged her with being an accessory to the crime. They charged her and the two accused thieves with possession of stolen property. Luffman and Porter were also charged with misdemeanor theft.

Strong-Arm Robbery
Last night, a man who had just bought a PlayStation at Wal-Mart was robbed before he could even get out of the parking lot. Chad Foster tells police two men got out of a car as he walked past, and one grabbed the sack containing the PS2. He demanded Foster’s wallet, and when Foster said he didn’t have one, the teen hit him in the back of the head. His partner got on the other side of Foster and hit him as well. Foster started fighting back, at which time the thieves ran back to their car and sped off--right past a Wal-Mart security camera. Police are working with Wal-Mart to get a copy of the video.

Foster describes both men as black, in their late teens or early 20’s. Both wore hooded sweat shirts. The scond man also wore sunglasses. One was about 5-8, the other was about 6 feet tall. They were driving what looked to be an old patrol car – a late 80’s Caprice or Crown Victoria with black wheels and chrome bands. Anyone with information about the crime is asked to call Wilkesboro Police or CrimeStoppers.