Rise in burglaries is no coincidence, Hodge says

Sheriff Lawrence Hodge says there’s no coincidence between the layoff of nearly half of his road deputies effective May 20, and a rash of recent burglaries since that time.
“If we don’t get these deputies back to work, we are going to be right back where we were when I took office, a wide open county,” Hodge said. “I don’t see how you cannot think there is a connection. They started that night. If I read that in the paper and I’m a thief, I’m going, ‘Happy days are here again.'”
Prior to the layoffs, the department had been averaging one burglary call every eight days, but since the layoffs, deputies had investigated reports of nearly 29 burglaries through Tuesday morning.
In the first six days the deputies had been laid off, deputies worked 17 burglaries.
The county currently has a budget deficit over $800,000. County officials say they will need to eliminate employee health insurance, implement a payroll tax, reduce the number of ambulance service workers, layoff some workers in the judge-executive’s office, and cut funding to the sheriff’s department in order to pay off the deficit.
Hodge said he was expecting to get the $107,000 in annual funds next month, but because of the cut he had to lay off four deputies and a secretary in order to balance his own budget. Prior to the layoffs, the department had nine deputies, who were assigned patrol duty.
The department generates enough revenue through property tax collections, vehicle inspections, and serving papers to pay the remaining deputies, bookkeepers, and expenses.
Hodge said that there seems to be no pattern to the burglaries, and he doesn’t know if they are related.
“We’ve had them all over the county. They know we’re off, and it cuts their odds of getting caught in half,” Hodge said.
The burglaries have occurred at both local homes and businesses.
So far deputies have charged two people in connection with separate burglaries, and say they have leads in other cases, which are being followed up slowly due to the lack of manpower.
Burglars apparently used a vehicle to break open the door of Granny’s Country Store on May 19, and probably did the same at another market in Rockholds that same evening.
Gerald Kier of Rockholds was charged with third-degree burglary Sunday in connection with the burglary at Granny’s Country Store.
“We expect to make another arrest on it. We are sure he didn’t act alone. We know that there is another out there, who we expect to get in another day or two,” Hodge said.
Thieves stole nearly 60 cartons of cigarettes, and authorities recovered nearly 17 cartons of cigarettes Sunday.
“I guess you could say the sheriff’s department smoked one,” Hodge said.
Hodge said that Kier has confessed to police, and that they haven’t ruled him out as a suspect in some other burglaries.
A 17-year-old male juvenile has been charged with second-degree burglary in connection with a residential burglary, which recently occurred near Possum Hollow Sunday evening.
“A lady was at the funeral home, and when she came back, her house was burglarized. We caught him shortly there after,” Hodge added. “We recovered the stolen property.”
The victims were sent to the county attorney’s office to get a warrant against a second suspect in the case.
Thieves are taking the usual items stolen in burglaries, such as guns, chainsaws, weed eaters, and electronic items, Hodge said.
“They take anything that isn’t nailed down,” he added.
Even with the layoffs, his deputies have been on duty for every shift to answer calls as best they could, Hodge said. Instead of two deputies per shift though, only one officer is working.
“There has not been a call that wasn’t answered. We have gotten to every call, but we are a little slower getting there,” he added.
Not having a second deputy per shift is partially the reason that a burglar, who broke into the old Wofford school building got away.
Deputies received a complaint about a burglar alarm going off there early Sunday morning.
Hodge said he arrived at the school, and secured doors at one end of the building. He said he tried to keep an eye on the other end of the building while he was waiting for officers from Williamsburg to arrive to provide assistance. Hodge said the burglar escaped out the other end of the building though, and bolted into the woods with a laptop computer.
“We do expect to make an arrest in that case,” he added.
Hodge said the sheriff’s department answers 91 percent of the calls for Whitley County, which come in through the 911 dispatch center compared to 9 percent of the calls being answered by the state police.
Hodge said he has contacted state police about getting additional troopers assigned to patrol Whitley County, but that state officials have told him they don’t have additional manpower.