Wind Storm Causes Damage
Today’s wind storm is blamed for damage along Statesville Road, along with some power outages. The gusty winds blew the roof off the outer shell of IT WAN-LAN Solutions and onto some cars in the parking lot. Damage was also reported at Harold’s Restaurant. The National Weather Service has a wind advisory in effect until midnight, as the wind will continue to gust above 50 miles an hour, causing the potential for more damage and power line problems.

Crack Dealer Busted
A pickup stuck on the side of the road led to a large crack cocaine bust in Wilkesboro this morning. An office on patrol on Industrial Boulevard saw the pickup stuck in the ditch, with a woman standing next to it on the passenger side. When the officer talked with her and with the driver, their stories didn’t match. The officer asked if he could search them, and was told he could. During the search, the officer found a packet containing 83 baggies of the kind often used for packaging illegal drugs, and when he took a look around the pickup, he found to bags a short distance away containing 58 rocks of crack cocaine. The man, Quentin Parsons, also had 342 dollars on him. On further questioning eh woman admitted she was there to buy crack from Parsons, but had not made the purchase when the officer pulled up. A search found nothing illegal on her, so she was not arrested. Parsons is charged with possession with intent to sell, and with possession of drug paraphernalia. He is jailed on a five-thousand dollar bond.

Employee Arrested for False Refunds
A Purlear man faces an allegation he stole more than one thousand dollars from his employer over the course of several months. 25-year old Troy Allen Green was arrested yesterday. Wilkesboro police learned about the theft when a manager at Penney’s stopped an officer who happened to be in the store and told him the store had discovered Green was writing cash refunds to customers who didn’t exist, and pocketing the money. According to a police report, the Green has admitted to the thefts.

Auto Thief Behind Bars
Sheriff Deputies have arrested a man for an auto theft we first told you about last night. Terry Eugene Bates was arrested yesterday, after a neighbor saw him towing off another vehicle from Jesse Carter’s shop outside Elkin. This time, the neighbor took a photo as Bates and another man, so far unidentified, loaded up a 1963 Ford Custom Cab pickup. Four other cars had been taken from Carter’s place while he was gone to Florida. Bates tells deputies he was simply getting rid of junk cars. But he said he didn’t know who owned them, and didn’t have permission tot take them. He claimed he shouldn’t have to have permission, as the cars had set there for 20 years. Carter says he’s been working on repairs to each.

Sugar in the Gas Tank
A Wilkes family’s pickup faces expensive repair, after someone poured sugar into the gas tank. Catherine Roberts tells sheriff deputies she heard a noise outside last night, and when she looked out, saw someone standing next to her husband’s pickup. When she went to the door, the man ran off. Mr. Roberts says a man matching the vandal’s description had been hanging around his outbuildings earlier yesterday, and Mr. Roberts had run him off. Neither of them know his name. Deputies estimate it’ll cost about 400-dollars to replace the gas tank.

Christmas Parade Saturday
Saturday is the annual Wilkes County Jaycees Christmas Parade. President Jody Chatham says about 75 entries will follows the traditional parade route, which starts at Melody Square in North Wilkesboro and ends at Glenn’s Tastee Freeze in Wilkesboro. They’ll be led by the 505th Engineer Battalion, the North Carolina National Guard unit that recently returned from service in Iraq, which has been designated the parade’s Grand Marshall. The parade starts at 1 Saturday afternoon.

Burns is President of the Year
A local man is being honored as the state’s Community College President of the Year. Dr. Gordon Burns received the honor during an awards ceremony earlier this month. The Record reports the objective of the President of the Year program is to encourage, identify, and reward outstanding leadership and commitment to the community college mission among the presidents of the 58 institutions of the North Carolina Community College System

Wallet Stolen
A Wilkes man laid his wallet down in a local store while paying recently, and forgot to pick it back up. When he came back to the store minutes later, the wallet was gone. Kenneth Absher says he was getting some things at the Rock Creek BP station Tuesday evening. The security tape shows a man behind him in line picking up his wallet and putting it in the man’s jacket pocket. Unfortunately, the tape wasn’t clear enough to identify the black male. The clerk says the thief is a regular customer, and if she finds out his name, she’ll call sheriff’s deputies.

Whoo, That Was Heavy, Man
North Wilkesboro police continue to work leads on the weekend theft that could have been done by a circus strongman. It probably wasn’t one person, but several who hoisted a 1-thousand point safe up on a dolly inside Lowe Fur and Herb early Saturday and rolled it out the door. A police report says at least one of the burglars came in through a side window. The safe contained money, guns, and stock certificates. The thieves also took about 50 Carhart camouflage jackets valued at about 45-hundred dollars. They haven’t been caught yet.

Stray Shot Penetrates House, No One Hurt
An unknown hunter is likely to blame for an incident yesterday that fortunately didn’t injure anyone. Ford Pickering called deputies to his house on Mountain View Road yesterday afternoon, saying he’d heard gunfire in the woods, and found a bullet on top of his refrigerator. The stray round had passed through a window and the refrigerator. He was in the living room at the time. Deputies say the bullet appears to have come from a high-powered hunting rifle. Neighbors didn’t report seeing the hunter.

Underage Intoxication
An 18-year old man and a 17-year old girl were arrested recently, after deputies found them drunk at a house on Traphill Road. Lucas Wilcox and Katrina Sloop are both under the legal age to consume alcohol. Deputies were called to the house for an overdose, after Wilcox couldn’t get Sloop to wake up. After paramedics woke her up, Sloop admitted to being drunk and having smoked marijuana. Wilcox was also intoxicated, according to the deputy.

C-Store Burglary Foiled by Alarm
Once again, a thief went a lot of work to break into an area convenience store – but unlike a few weeks ago when a thief stole thousands of dollars worth of cigarettes, this time the person went away empty-handed. The owner of Michelle’s Market in Ferguson tells sheriff deputies the alarm went off early this morning. When he got to the store, he found someone had pulled siding off the building and gotten into the attic, then climbed a ladder down into the store room. However, when the intended burglar went out the back room door into the store, the alarm was set off and the thief fled without taking anything. There was a security camera running, but in the darkness it wasn’t possible to get a tag number off the burglar’s car, or to identify the vehicle.

Domestic Fight Ends with Both Spouses in Jail
Sheriff Deputies arriving at a recent domestic disturbance call walked into a house to find a man and a woman both bloodied. The fight was called in by a third party from a nearby convenience store on Thanksgiving Day. After deputies met the man at the store to find out what was going on, they went to the house on Tanglewood Lane in Cricket.

They could hear the verbal part of the fight as they pulled up. A deputy says he knocked on the door, and Jeff Patrick answered the door covered in blood. A check of the house found his wife April in a bedroom, also with blood on her. Both told the deputies the other person had been the first to start hitting them. After being checked over by paramedics, both declined to be taken to the hospital. Deputies arrested both of them and charged each with assault.

Shoplifting, Taken to the Next Level
Shoplifting is one thing, but brazenly walking into a store, grabbing merchandise, and sauntering outside right past the clerk is another completely. The clerk at a local FasTrack called police right after it happened Thanksgiving afternoon. She told officers two men came into the store together. They split up, with one heading directly to the cigarette aisle where he grabbed three cartons of Newports. The men left the store without paying and got in a grey Nissan Sentra with tag number SWY-7000. Police were unable to get a phone number for the registered owner of the car, but are still working to interview that person. The clerk did not know either thief.

Business Burglary
The owner of a local business believes he know who broke in after he set the place up Friday night and went to get a bite to eat. Jimmy Welborn tells sheriff deputies that’s his normal routine as he gets ready to open the Family Game Room. When he came back from dinner Friday, Welborn found the front door of the business had been kicked in, a cash box stolen, and the security videotape taken out of the VCR. The 19-year old man he suspects of burglarizing him has had numerous addresses, and deputies are still working to track him down.

Fights Mar Evening at Two Local Restaurants
Two men exchanging words inside a local restaurant Friday night were told to take their argument outside, but even then, a store employee ended up being drawn into the fray. The Pizza Hut on School Street is where it happened, just before midnight Friday.

After tempers flared, employees of the restaurant asked them to leave, so they walked out and continued the fight in the parking lot. A waitress went out into the parking lot a few minutes later to tell them to leave the property because they wouldn’t calm down. Both of the men turned on her, grabbing her by the arms and shaking her until the manager ran outside to break it up. Police told the manager and the employee how to get a warrant drawn up on the men, whose names are known, for assault. So far, they have not been arrested.

A fight that started in another Wilkesboro restaurant ended with a man getting punched in the eye. Christopher Habershaw, a Virginia man having a meal at Ruby Tuesday’s last week, somehow got into a verbal confrontation with a local man. He reports the man had been yelling at him and some friends, and when Habershaw shot the man a grin, the man walked over to him and punched him. The restaurant employee who called police told officers after he was hit, Habershaw stood up, but never took a swing at the other man. He refused medical attention, and declined to sign a warrant for the man who hit him.

Recent Fires Accidental
Fire Marshall Nick Hanby has released the causes of two recent fires, and has ruled both are accidental in nature.

The first fire was reported November 18th at about 4:30 in the afternoon. A manufactured home on Haymeadow Road in Hays suffered about 15-thousand dollars damage. The fire was reported by a woman who said she’d been next door visiting when another neighbor knocked on the door saying her house was on fire. Ola Mae Hawkins believed the fire had started form a candle she’d left burning, sitting on a plastic chair in a bedroom. Fire Marshall Hanby says that’s consistent with what was found in the house.

The second fire was reported two days later, on the 20th at a manufactured home on Carl Drive in North Wilkesboro. The unoccupied home suffered more than 9-thousand dollars damage, and Erwin Ward lost about 12-hundred dollars worth of personal property he was moving into the house. The fire investigation showed an electrical outlet on an interior wall of the house’s center bedroom shorted out, sparking the blaze. Some of the damaged items were owned by a third person; neither she nor Ward had insurance on the property.

Domestic Fight Leads to Foot Chase
A sheriff’s deputy responding to a domestic disturbance call last night had to chase down one of the parties involved. 46-yer old John Burton Burns was collared in the woods behind a house on Colbert Place near Elkin, after he dashed from the house as deputies drove up. Once the deputies got inside the house, they found Burns’ girlfriend, April Wood, with a black eye and a cut on her eyebrow. There were several picture frames broken through the house, according to a crime report, and a hole in one wall. Burns was arrested and charged with one count of assault on a female.

Speeding, Open Container, and More
Wilkesboro police say a man was speeding on highway 421 through town last night, and that’s what started the chain of events that ended with him in jail facing several charges including drug possession.

An officer saw 21-year old Robert Jerome Cobb speeding on Highway 421 about 10:45 last night, and pulled him over in the Bo jangles parking lot. At first, Cobb gave the officer a false name, and said he’d left his drivers license at home. The bogus name was already in police computers, and the officer discovered Cobb had a suspended license. He received consent to search the car, and found an open bottle of Corona. Cobb also admitted as he was being questioned that he had a small amount of marijuana hidden in his pants. He faces a total of five misdemeanor charges and was jailed in lieu of 5-thousand dollars bond. His court date is scheduled for early January.

Purse Reported Missing
A Wilkes woman will have a somewhat harder time completing her Christmas shopping this year, after her purse, which contained 600-dollars, was taken out of a restroom at Wal-Mart recently. Amanda Lovette reported last Wednesday that she’d gone into the restroom and left her purse behind. When she went back about 20 minutes later, the purse was missing. She said the purse contained 600-dollars in cash and some makeup items. So far, police have no information about who might have walked out of the restroom with the purse.

Accused Shooters Arrested; No One Hurt
Two men are behind bars today, following a drive-by shooting yesterday that sheriff deputies say was motivated by an oustanding debt. 22-year old Jesse Michael Poole of Purlear and 19-year old Justin Lee Royal of Lansing are charged with shooting into an occupied home, two counts of making threats to a person, and felony aiding and abetting.

Here’s how deputies say things went down. Royal was owed money by one of the victims, who live in a manufactured home on Suncrest Orchard Road. He threatened to shoot up the man’s house if he didn’t pay the money, and, according to the crime report, even pulled out the gun he said he’d use. Poole called the man and threatened him as well. About 9 last night, two shots were fired into the house, one of them penetrating the living room wall, passing through the kitchen, and out the far wall, passing through the wall of an adjacent trailer and breaking some dishes in a cabinet in that home. Fortunately, neither of the shots hit a person.

Deputies stopped the pair later on Highway 268, and quickly found that one of them had ditched the gun behind a business nearby. Two women in the car were taken into custody, but released after deputies determined they had nothing to do with the crime. Justin Royal admitted that he’d fired the shots at the urging of Jesse Poole.

Woman Disappears After Hitting Boyfriend With Car
Deputies have issued an arrest warrant for a Hays woman who reportedly hit her boyfriend with a car. They’re looking for 30-year old Tabitha Ann Church, who hasn’t been seen since the incident last night. Christopher Scott tells deputies he and Church had been fighting off and on all day, and he heard her start the car to leave. As he went outside to try to stop her, Scott says Church gunned the car, heading right for him. He couldn’t get out of the way quickly enough, and the impact broke his arm.

Accused Gas Thief Arrested
Wikesboro Police arrested a local man Friday about noon, after he allegedly drove off from a FasTrack store without paying for gas. 18-year old Ronald Anglin the Third is charged with theft, and is scheduled for trial in January.

The clerk at the FasTrack on US 421 called police after Anglin pumped just over 20-dollars in gas into his Blazer, then went inside and told the clerk he didn’t have any money to pay. His passenger, Harvey Lowe, refused to leave with him, and remained at the store until police arrived. Anglin was arrested when he returned to the store, and charged with the theft, along with not having a drivers license. He was also wanted by Davie County authorities for an earlier break-in there.

Stolen or Repo'd?
Sheriff Deputies are looking for a pickup truck that was reported stolen Friday. David Holman told deputies Friday evening he’d come home to find his blue 2004 Ford flare-side pickup had been taken. He admitted to deputies that he’d gotten behind on the payments, and that he’d left a key in the truck . There was also a 22-caliber Ruger pistol in the pickup when it was taken. It hasn’t been seen since.

Accused Thief Behind Bars
A local man is in jail, after a sheriff’s deputy found several items in his house and utility trailer that were reported stolen a little over a week ago. Owen Coffey was arrested following a break-in and burglary of a home on Boomer Road November 18th. He’s accused of stealing almost 15-hundred dollars worth of fishing gear, tools and other items including a fishing boat from a home less than a mile away. Deputies leaving the burglarized house saw Coffey, and found much of the stolen property either in his house or in a utility trailer in his yard. He is charged with prying open the door of the home up the road, along with a storage building on that property.