I am a probation/parole officer in North Carolina. This is how one of my offenders could not fully grasp the consequences of drinking before court.

In August of 1995, Allene Rhodes was caught for Driving While Impaired. She was found guilty in District court but appealed the judgement to Superior court. In April of 1996, at the age of 61, she appeared for Superior court. The District Attorney, the Baliff and everyone else around her could smell the alcohol she had been consuming prior to this. When the judge was notified of this, she ordered that a state trooper take Ms. Rhodes to the magistrate’s office to perform an intoxilizer test.

Back then in North Carolina, the legal limit was .10 BAC to be legally drunk. She was well above this when the trooper administered the test. The trooper took her back to the court room and told her to sit in the jail box and await the judge. As he approached with the intoxilizer report, the judge called for a 15 minute recess. As everyone was leaving the court, Allene looked to her right and to her left, then took off as fast as her 61 year old legs could take her. By the time the trooper had noticed what was up, she was already out the door of the court room.

He took off after her, but by the time he reached the front steps, she had jumped in her truck and was driving away. As she left, the trooper looked at the truck, then looked at the newly administered intoxilizer report. He looked up once more and smiled as he took out his citation book and began to write her another ticket for Driving While Impaired. Her address and physical information was on the original report for Superior court. He later drove out to her residence, where he found her alive and well and arrested her for the crime.

Needless to say, she did not appeal this case when she was convicted.

A somewhat intoxicated man parked a stolen U-Haul at a West Phoenix Circle K. The manager of the U-Haul facility from which the truck was stolen spotted the vehicle and confronted the man as he left the store. The thief tossed him a set of about 40 truck keys, also stolen from the U-Haul station, and jumped the nearest fence. He was immediately chased by an angry guard dog and jumped the next fence. This time, he landed in the training yard of a martial arts school. In 5 seconds flat, the man was knocked down and pinned to the ground by a student and one of the instructors. The police were called and the man was taken into custody by a couple of amused police officers.

Got gas? That’s the question would-be truck thief Harley Hughes should have asked before allegedly speeding up the highway in a 1993 Chevrolet pickup he found parked on Highland Avenue in Pound.

Instead, Hughes stopped by a house on Bold Camp to bum some gas when the fuel gauge dipped near empty.

He could not have picked a worse place to stop, police say. The result is a case that has brought chuckles and smiles from deputies, lawyers and even some judges.

Hughes, 26, was arrested for grand larceny May 29. According to sheriff’s Lt. Ronnie Large, the story goes as follows:

Preston Lane and his wife Veronica live on Robinson Hill Road, just off Highland Avenue. On May 29, Mrs. Lane dropped her husband off at his mother Nita Lane’s house on Bold Camp Road and drove the truck to her parents’ house on Highland Avenue. She parked the truck and left with her mother to visit her brother on Birchfield Road.

In the meantime, Hughes was walking from his home on Poplar Street just off Route 83 when he allegedly came up Highland Avenue and noticed the truck sitting there with the keys inside.

Hughes allegedly took the truck, but noticed it was running low on fuel about five miles up Bold Camp. He pulled into the nearby driveway at 9622 Bold Camp Road.

Hughes saw a man in the yard. He yelled to the stranger, “My truck’s almost out of gas. Can I borrow some?”

One thought was running through the mind of the man in the yard: “Hey! That’s my truck!”

Hughes had stopped at Nita Lane’s house and started talking to none other than Preston Lane. At this point, Large said, Lane’s wife had not yet returned and noticed the truck was missing.

Lane remained calm as he thought of ways to stall the man while he notified police, but he hurried his children into the house for fear they would say something and give it away.

Lane discretely told his mother to call her neighbor, sheriff’s department Major Gene Vanover, and get him over there. In the meantime, Lane chatted with Hughes while pretending he was trying find some gas.

Lane’s mother called Vanover’s house, but he wasn’t home, so she called Lane’s wife. Mrs. Lane then contacted Large, who lived down the road and was off duty that night. He in turn contacted central dispatch in Wise, but the dispatcher notified him that the closest deputy was in Coeburn.

Large called Mrs. Lane back and passed along the information, but she advised him the man was about to leave. Large put on his uniform and went to the house to detain the alleged truck thief until deputies could arrive.

When he arrived around 8:30 p.m., Large said, Lane’s mother met him out front and pointed to the back yard. About that time, he said, Hughes was coming around the house.

At first, Large didn’t recognize Hughes, who is no stranger to local police and who was on probation for other crimes.

He asked the surprised Hughes his name as he was handcuffing him, and Hughes told him his name was Harley Rose. But Large quickly recognized the man. “I said, ‘You’re not Harley Rose, you’re Harley Hughes.’”

Large asked Hughes if the truck belonged to him, and Hughes admitted it didn’t. He then asked Hughes if he knew whose vehicle it was, and Hughes again admitted he didn’t.

The officer told Hughes the vehicle belonged to the man from whom he had just tried to borrow gas. Hughes insisted it couldn’t. He had just taken the truck from the home of Jerry Mullins on Highland Avenue, Hughes said as he pointed to Mullins, who had just pulled into the driveway behind them. It couldn’t possibly belong to Lane.

Large told Hughes, “That’s his father-in-law.”

Hughes’ response: “You’re (kidding) me!”

Hughes was arraigned on the charge May 31 in general district court. Judge Suzanne Fulton certified the charge to a grand jury on June 12.

I was on patrol late one night when I was dispatched to a loud party call at a small apartment complex.

I drove by the complex to see what I was dealing with and as I drove by, I observed approximately 20 subjects standing in the parking lot.

As I was pulling into the parking lot, I observed one of the subjects hold something in the air and shout, “hey you want to smoke this with me?”

I approached the group and the subject that I observed was standing there with the rest of the group holding a beer. After obtaining ID from everyone, it turned out that subject was under 21 so I arrested him. While conducting the search, I found a burning joint in his pocket. As I pulled the joint out of his pocket, I asked him if this was what he wanted me to smoke with him? The subject stated “Boy am I dumb!”

I had to agree!

Staff report A Davenport man’s attempts to claim a “reward'’ for finding a Davenport police officer’s cell phone landed him in jail.

According to police, Daniel Fritz, 54, of 1516 Waverly Rd., found a cellular phone in the former Eagle Country Market parking lot, 2300 West Locust St.

Police said Mr. Fritz used the cell phone to call the owner and demanded a reward for the phone’s return. He also allegedly told Davenport Police Cpl. Steve Schreider — who’d called the cell phone trying to reach the owner — the phone wouldn’t be given back unless he received a reward.

The owner reached an agreement with Mr. Fritz on the “ransom'’ amount, and set up a meeting at the Dollar General Store, 2600 W. Locust, for the exchange, police said. Instead, Mr. Fritz was met by two Davenport police officers Saturday and taken into custody on fifth-degree theft charges.

He’d been released from the Scott County Jail on $325 bond late Sunday. The date of his court hearing was unavailable.

The phone belonging to Cpl. Bob Hegland of the Davenport Police Department.

I’m a police officer in North Carolina and have been for the past 13 years. Your story about the drive-through reminded me of this one. It’s the best case I was ever involved in.

A number of years ago I was dispatched to a local bank branch that was near a major highway in response to an attempted robbery. When I arrived, I spoke with the teller who called in.

She told me that a man pulled up to the drive-through window and passed her a note that had been written on a miniature pink legal pad. The note stated that this was a robbery and demanded that she put all of her cash in the drawer. The driver had a red bandana around the lower portion of his face and pointed a gun at her. She said that she reached up, pulled the gate down that covered the window, and called 9-1-1.

I was getting the suspect description from her and I asked her to describe the vehicle that he was driving. The teller told me that it was an older vehicle but was having trouble describing it further. Then, she looked out the window and pointed saying “It’s that one right there.”

She was pointing at an older Chevrolet sedan in the drive through window lane at another bank diagonally across the intersection.

I asked her again if she was sure and she said that she was positive. I contacted the other units that had checked in with me that were waiting on a description of the suspect vehicle and had them go to the other bank. The suspect vehicle was the third car in line, with another vehicle behind it. Two officers went to the exit and stood by while another officer and myself approached the vehicle from the rear.

As we got up to the vehicle, my partner motioned that he could see a gun on the passenger’s seat. We challenged the suspect and he gave up without incident. Also in the vehicle was the bandana, the pink legal pad and several attempts at a good stick-up note.

Two years ago I arrested a suspect on a misdemeaner warrant. The suspect was very cooperative so when he asked me to get his wallet for him so he could buy things at the jail canteen, I went in the house and got it from atop the refrigerator. I stuck it in his pocket and took him to jail. During the booking search, I found a quantity of cocaine in the wallet. I charged him with bringing drugs into a jail facility. He said his brother gave him the drugs to hold for him and he forgot he had put it in his wallet.