A man who swiped a donations jar from a local convenience store in a smash-and-grab burglary returned to the store as investigators were talking with employees to turn himself in.
Thomas Matthew McBee, 24, was charged Thursday with breaking and entering, larceny and possession of stolen property. with a break-in charge pending. Bond was set at $5,000 secured. His first appearance is Monday.
Detectives said McBee was staying with a friend that lived near the store.
McBee broke into Kountry Market, 3280 N.C. 18 S. at 11:44 p.m., using a baseball bat to smash out the glass in the front door, according to Detective Mike Ollis with the Burke County Sheriff’s Office.
Inside the store, he took two sodas and a jar of donations that were meant for Willard “Bud” Webb, who has end-stage chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and an alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency.
When employees came in Thursday, they found the door broken in and an empty donations jar on the ground.
While investigators were on the scene, McBee walked into the store and officers took him into custody, Ollis said. McBee told investigators he was trying to make amends for what he’d done.
McBee also told police he was tired of not having money and had noticed the jar in the store. He’d been living with a person who lived a few blocks away.
McBee confessed to the burglary and showed police where he hid the aluminum bat.
The money never left the store, however.
McBee was frustrated when he found there was little money in the jar, according to Ollis, and he threw the jar on the floor. Detectives found the money underneath one of the shelves.
Sheriff Steve Whisenant said this was an “unusual” case for his investigators, and was glad the case was solved within 12 hours.
“It’s good when you get some of those breaks,” he said.
Store owner Vasant Patel said McBee is “a low kind of person” for trying to take the donations.
Leigh Singley, Webb’s girlfriend and caregiver, said she doesn’t understand why someone would steal a donation jar.
“I don’t know what to think about the person,” she said, “but God is going to bless us in the end.”
Singley says they’ve been struggling to raise $10,000 so Webb can go to Duke University Hospital in Durham for a double-lung transplant.
She’s upbeat, however, and want to thank all of those who’ve helped.
Anyone interested in donating to Webb can call him at 391-0979.
The attempted theft also brought out the best in a local pizza company.
Jonathon Woodie with Hunt Brothers Pizza said his company donated several pizzas to the store to sell so the proceeds could go to Webb’s treatment.
Email
Facebook
Google
Twitter
Favorites
More
Advertisement