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.