norton

Norton, Virginia police vehicle stolen found, Four guns still missing

By JODI DEAL, Staff Writer - January 25, 2005

Two shotguns and two pistols are still missing from an unmarked city police vehicle stolen Jan. 15, but many expensive electronic devices have been recovered.

Norton Police Sgt. Eddie Bevins, a member of the Regional Drug Task Force, left the 1999 Ford Explorer unlocked and running while he darted for just a minute into his mother's home in Ramsey. Bevins returned to find the vehicle gone.

Three teens reported missing from a Norton group home have been accused in the theft. They were arrested Jan. 17 in Newport News. They told Norton Police Lt. Dennis Brummitte, who is investigating the case, they wanted to see the ocean.

"None of the three of them had ever seen the ocean," Brummitte said Friday. "But they never saw the ocean. They got caught first."

Bevins said last week he had three weapons in the vehicle, and one had been recovered.

Brummitte said Friday there were six weapons in the vehicle when it was stolen and four are still missing.

Bevins' department-issued .40-caliber pistol and 12-gauge shotgun were inside the vehicle when it was stolen. Also inside were four personal weapons, which included another .40 caliber pistol, a .22 caliber pistol, a .410-gauge shotgun and an AR-15 assault rifle, Brummitte said.

The assault rifle and Bevins' personal .22 caliber pistol have been recovered, Brummitte noted.

The .22 caliber pistol was recovered in Bristol from a friend of one of the juveniles. The serial number of the pistol had already been filed off, Brummitte said.

The assault rifle was among a variety of items recovered by police along a 10-mile stretch of road in Buchanan County.

Police equipment discovered along Rt. 638 near Richlands was apparently ditched after the boys ran a Buchanan County Sheriff's officer off a small dirt road early Sunday morning. Radios, a spotlight, flashing blue lights and police radios - anything that distinguished the car as a police vehicle - were all cut out and thrown from the car, Brummitte says.

Brummitte estimates the total damage done to the vehicle's standard equipment was probably about $2,500, including the cost of rewiring, a cost that may earn the boys additional charges for destruction to city property.

As for the special surveillance equipment used for drug task force work thrown from the vehicle, Brummitte was unsure of the damage done.

Brummitte estimated there was between $8,000 and $10,000 worth of surveillance equipment stolen, but much of the equipment was stored in protective cases and most of the items recovered can still be used. Of six "body wires," a transmitter surveillance device worn under clothing, five have been recovered, he said.

Several items also were recovered on High Knob, Brummitte said, including some of Bevins' personal items, his check book, several cellular phones and chargers, a bullet-proof vest, the case to the lost assault rifle and several police machetes.

what happened?

The boys charged with stealing the vehicle volunteered to go to Buchanan County last week to show Brummitte where they had thrown items out. However, he noted, anything that had not already been collected by Buchanan County police was covered in snow.

Though the trip to Buchanan County didn't yield additional police equipment, it did give Brummitte a better idea of what went on while the boys had the vehicle.

According to Brummitte, the trio - two 16-year-olds and a 17-year-old - apparently walked about two miles to the Ramsey section of Norton from Victory Boys' Home, located on Virginia Avenue.

When they reached Flanary Avenue, the area from which they stole the vehicle, they were apparently looking for bicycles to ride to Coeburn when they came upon the unmarked police vehicle, which was running and unlocked, Brummitte said.

Bevins said last week he had had battery problems with the vehicle before his shift, and had to jump-start it before leaving for his 8 p.m. shift. The vehicle was stolen from in front of his mother's house around 8:30 p.m.

Norton Police Chief Sam Mongle, Brummitte and Bevins all agree that police equipment can drain car batteries quickly.

Police do not believe the boys realized the vehicle was a police car until they were inside. Also, despite early worries that the boys had used police radios to evade the officers chasing them, Brummitte says police now believe the boys cut the radio out immediately.

From there, Brummitte says the boys drove up High Knob on Rt. 619, across the mountain into Devil's Fork in Scott county. They then drove through Ft. Blackmore, Gate City, Hiltons, Bristol and Abingdon, and along Rt. 19 to Lebanon, he says.

ripped off

Before the boys were apprehended, they got into another sort of trouble in Newport News - they got ripped off.

"They were needing money and decided to sell 75 CDs to an individual they picked up on the street," Brummitte said. "They discussed with him selling the CDs, which belonged to one of the juveniles."

From there, the man asked them to park and wait while he took the CDs inside for his sister to look at them, to see if she'd be interested in buying them, Brummitte says. The boys waited for more than a half an hour in a Newport News housing project for the man to return, but he never did.

"One of the police officers there said they were probably lucky to get out of the projects with their tennis shoes," Brummitte said.

The boys were discovered at a convenience store in Newport News after a cab driver saw them and, suspecting the boys were drunk, called police, according to Brummitte. The boys were inside the store when police arrived and were arrested.

Each of the juveniles have been charged with grand theft auto, according to a spokesman for the Wise County Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court.

According to Adrian Collins, Wise County assistant commonwealth attorney, all three boys were arraigned last Wednesday and assigned court-appointed attorneys. A hearing for the juveniles is set for Thursday, Feb. 10, Collins said last week.

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