The Farmville Herald

Three Businesses Broken Into Early Friday Night

Three local business places were broken into Friday night by a bold thief or thieves.

The first break-in was at Red Front Grocery on West Third street. Police officer Amburn, and deputy sheriff Jack Campbell were making a routine patrol in a police car in the vicinity of Red Front, when they heard a hammer hit steel.

It was 9:15 p.m. so they were not too suspicious. However, they turned in the side alley behind the Peoples Bank, to make an investigation. When they got out to investigate, they called in a second patrol car that arrived in less than a minute. It was cruising about a block away.

The investigation disclosed that the store had been entered from the rear, and the safe had been worked on. The dial of the safe was broken, which accounts for the "hammer hitting steel".

The thief apparently fled between the time the patrol car came by and turned down the alley. Possibly a look out sounded the warning when the patrol car came near.

Apparently the same thief waited about an hour and struck again. This time he hit Reid's Sunoco Station and Bob's Super Market, both just west of town. Farmville police officers discovered the break-in at Bob's about 10:45 and at the Sunoco station minutes later. Charles Reid did not leave the service station until about 10:20, so Police Chief Otto S. Overton estimates that the break-in occurred between 10:20 and 10:45, when the break-in at Bob's was discovered.

"We were breathing down his neck the whole way", Chief Overton said. "but we just missed him at every turn."

About $50 was stolen at Red Front, and no losses reported at either of the other places.