Okay, so apparently a Harris Teeter employee at the Fort Mill location has stolen up to $1,000 in groceries this year. I guess no one told the 21-year-old that coupons and shopping the deals could have been his friend. Add in any employee discount that HT folks get, and he would have been rockin’ it at the Harris Teeter.

For instance, this past week was triple coupons. I went shopping with my coupons and a list of weekly specials, and walked out with $78 worth of groceries for only $25. That’s almost 70% in savings. Imagine if I worked there and had a store discount – maybe 10%? I could have paid even less.

So to work at the store and then steal $1,000 in groceries just seems so pointless. Coupons/specials = freedom. Stealing = jail time. I think I know what I prefer!!

Also, this quote from the article made me laugh:

…the Fort Mill store’s loss prevention manager caught him attempting to take a shopping cart of beef and pork products outside without paying…

Um…how did he think he wouldn’t get caught? An entire cart filled ONLY with beef and pork? Seriously?

This is from the Fort Mill School District website:

Important Announcement
The Fort Mill School District has received word that young people, claiming to be interns in the district, are going door to door throughout the district seeking information from parents and offering to sell handbooks. The district does not use interns and these sales people do not represent the Fort Mill School District. If approached, do not offer any information and contact the police.

I’ll add that in the phone message I got yesterday, the district recommends you remember to give the police a physical description of anyone coming to your door requesting personal information in order to sell you a handbook. This way they have a better chance of catching the person(s) behind this scam. So remember what they look like – height, weight, eye color, skin tone, clothing they are wearing, jewelry, piercings or birthmarks.

However, chances are that whoever has been doing this will stop – between the voicemail message from the school district, the announcement on their website AND some coverage by the local TV stations last night, the perpetrators will most likely bring this particular campaign to an end. But keep an eye out nonetheless!

Okay, many thoughts run through my head while reading the news story about the man that got robbed ($7,200 was taken!!) at the Love’s gas station of Exit 83 on I-77. You can read the story here.

You back? Okay, let’s discuss.

First quote from the article:

He said the man and his wife became interested when they watched the men handling a large amount of cash amongst themselves in a room at the truck stop.

Okay, so I can see being interested in whatever game the men were playing. But seriously – a truck stop is probably NOT where you want to gamble. Casinos like Harrah’s or Caesar’s Palace is probably a better bet (no pun intended).

The victim then went out to his car to get money, Zachary said, and that’s when the thieves robbed him. … “The man and his wife were visibly upset – extremely upset,” [Fort Mill Police Captain Bryan] Zachary said.

Let’s say for the sake of argument that the man wasn’t robbed, but instead found himself a part of a real gambling game at Love’s. Would he and his wife had been just as upset if they lost money while gambling on their trip home?

But police counted another victim on the report: the company the victim works for…Zachary said $3,000 of the stolen money belonged to the company [for whom the man works], but he isn’t sure if the man intended to use that money in the gambling scheme.

So the man gets over $7K stolen, and $3K of that belongs to his company? Forget about the company cash. Why is anyone carrying $4K in CASH anyway? Seriously…who does that? When I take a road trip (remember the article said this couple was on their way home to Florida from a visit to Ohio), I pretty much keep $100 on me – and that’s just so that I can get to wherever I’m going and pay only cash. It’s for gas, snacks, and meals. There’s no need to carry more than that on a travel day. You want cash at your destination? Wait and take it out of the bank AT YOUR DESTINATION. Seriously.

So let this be a lesson to us all this holiday weekend. Don’t flash your cash, and don’t play dice or cards or whatever with random men at rest stops – even if they are flashing bills around themselves. I feel bad for this couple, yes, but the other part of me exasperatedly thinks, “REALLY?”

The holiday weekend arrived yesterday – do you have any plans or are you staying close to home and just relaxing for a few days? Regardless of what kind of plans you have, be sure to keep to the speed limit on the highways during the holiday break. The state highway patrol will be on the hunt for speeders this weekend and was able to pass out 262 tickets yesterday alone.

Be safe everyone!

I sure wish that the Carowinds Boulevard area would clean up its act. Stories like this one burn me up (emphasis mine):

Ronnie Corey Perry Jr., 37 of Kershaw is in jail on $25,000 bond after being charged with trafficking cocaine, according to a York County Sheriff’s Office report…Javier Nevy Trivino-Macias, 22, of Charlotte also is in jail Monday on $25,000 bond after being charged with trafficking cocaine, according to the report.

See where those folks are from? Just south of here, just north of here. Unfortunately, Fort Mill falls in the middle and we bear the brunt of having headlines state that coke was being sold in Fort Mill.

I’m not deluded enough to think that Fort Mill is squeaky clean – there have been arrests all over town through the years. Drugs are EVERYwhere and you’d have to be pretty naive to think that you’re safe from them wherever you go. But to have the Carowinds area so regularly be the hotspot for crime is frustrating. And not just because I live an exit or two away.

Last night my family headed to Rock Hill for a school recital, and passed by 6-7 cops lined up in a row. They had ONE car pulled over. “That’s a bit much, don’t they think?” I thought as we passed by, blue light flashing on each and every car.

Turns out, what I saw last night was part of a campaign to reduce interstate drug trafficking. The article from The Herald has no mention of the expected total haul out of the four-day effort, but I can’t help but think that I’d prefer for the VIOLENT offenders be taken down, not some dude who is merely acting as a runner FOR the violent offender. And yes, I know that police can try to get the runner to turn in his supplier, who then turns in the big cheese, and then you’ve taken down three people instead of just one. But still…

This morning as I drove by Baxter Village I noticed two handmade signs at the Market Street entrance. They pronounced a man’s name, his address, and the fact that he pled guilty to child molestation. I was surprised by the sign for a number of reasons.

First, I wondered about the legality of putting up a handmade sign like that, on public land, that espoused a man’s name and address as well as the accusation of a sexual offense.

Second, I wondered whether York County had a policy in place wherein if a sexual offender moved into the neighborhood, would the neighbors be informed.

I made a couple calls to the York County Sheriff’s office and spoke to a couple of people over there. I was told that while putting up signs like that is not illegal per se, if the person putting up the sign is caught they can be charged with littering. The detective I spoke with also recommended that if a known sex offender moves onto your block, to let you neighbors know on a one-on-one basis rather that posting a sign.

As to the second question, York County will not notify you if an offender moves onto your block, however, they do have a website set up through CrimeStoppers which allows you to put in your address and email contact information. You will then receive email notices whenever an offender moves to within a mile of your address.

As for the gentleman who was listed on the signs I saw at Baxter (which were removed sometime between 7:30 a.m. when I drove by and 9:30 a.m. when I drove by again), the detective informed me that the man pled guilty to a lesser charge yesterday, and so he will not be on the state’s sexual offender list. So in that regard I can see why someone would want to post signs. But on the flip side – there are better ways of making sure people know, such as the one-on-one that the detective recommended.

Update at 3:00 p.m.: The Herald just posted a brief bit about it.