Welcome to HickoryRecord.com. Skip directly to: our Keyword Search, Section Navigation, Content.

HickoryRecord.com - Hickory Daily Record

HomeNewsEntertainmentSportsLifestylesOpinionCommunityWeather Online Tools Jobs | Real Estate | Shopping | Classified

LOST: Injured deputy's dog

‘We don’t know if somebody took him or he just left’

Submitted photo

11-year-old Jake is missing. The dog is the pet of David Chastain, a Catawba County sheriff’s deputy injured in a hit-and-run accident.

By Dee Henry | Hickory Daily Record

Published: August 11, 2008

NEWTON - As David Chastain continues to recover from severe injuries he received in a hit-and-run accident, he probably felt he had made it through the worst of his trauma.

But while the Catawba County sheriff's deputy remains at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center and his wife, Lori, travels back and forth between their home in Newton and the hospital, their 11-year-old dog, Jake, has disappeared.

"We don't know if somebody took him or he just left since we haven't been home much," Lori said.

David is recovering nicely and has been moved from the Acute Care Ward to a regular room, Lori said. He even walked up and down the hallway of the hospital Thursday.

"Everyone was surprised, even the trooper who handled the accident," she added.

David was scheduled for his seventh surgery Friday and is expected to need one or two more every week for a while.

His injuries are mainly to his left leg, which took the brunt of the hit when a vehicle collided with him and his motorcycle. The accident happened at 6:45 p.m. July 25 near the intersection of N.C. 10 and Robinson Road. He now has two rods in his leg — one in the upper leg, another in the lower — and a plate in his knee.

Trooper B.L. Albert of the N.C. Highway Patrol said witnesses described the suspect vehicle as a "white low-rider passenger car, possibly a Toyota Corolla."

Albert said the car would probably have only minimal damage to the left front side. Anyone with any information regarding the accident is asked to call the patrol's local office at 466-5528, which is manned Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., or the patrol's communication office at 466-5500.

The family is asking anyone with information about the dog to call Lori at (336) 682-5179.