Late night open thread

POLICE FIND ALIBI UN-BEARABLE
Man charged with breaking into Spotsylvania business
Date published: 4/30/2011
BY KEITH EPPS

A man's attempt to blame his fresh wounds on a bear didn't save him from a burglary charge Thursday night.

Spotsylvania sheriff's Lt. Col. Michael Timm said Deputy Patricia Purcell went to The Little Academy in the 4700 block of Plank Road shortly before 10 p.m. in response to an alarm activation.

She immediately noticed a broken door and saw a man walking toward her from the rear of the business and eating a banana.

Purcell asked the man if he knew what had happened, and he motioned toward the front of the building, where a glass door had been smashed.

Asked about a bleeding cut on his forehead, Timm said the man explained that he lives in the woods near State Routes 3 and 20 and was chased by a bear two days ago.

Suspicious of the man's bear story and his level of intoxication, Purcell detained him for further questioning.

Detectives found glass shards in the mud on the bottom of the man's boots, and a police dog tracked a scent from inside the business to where Purcell had seen the man walking, Timm said.

The business owners arrived and told police two laptop computers were missing. The man later said that they might want to look on the roof because "if I took them, that's where I would hide them."

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