From staff reports
YADKINVILLE — Police have arrested two Valdese residents suspected of committing a string of burglaries in western North Carolina.
Investigators charged Mitchell Franklin Damron, 33, and Ryleigh Elizabeth Waldrop, 18, both of Valdese, with 12 felony counts involving thefts from Yadkinville businesses.
“This started as a routine investigation of break-ins,” Police Chief Tim Parks told reporters.
“My detectives worked hard and tracked down the property. But what they discovered were two of the most active serial burglars I’ve seen in my law enforcement career. Just one mistake by an overzealous criminal was what it took to get caught.”
Parks said the two were arrested after detectives traced items stolen from one of four burglarized Yadkinville businesses to the suspects’ home in Valdese. He said the Conover Police Department, Valdese Police Department and Catawba and Burke County sheriffs’ offices helped seize the stolen items and contraband drugs.
“Some stolen property has been recovered, and we are trying to return it to the rightful owners,” Parks said, “but right now they are concentrating on helping connect crimes to jurisdictions and law enforcement agencies so that charges can be filed and cases closed.”
Police are sifting through mounds of evidence and other information to connect the stolen goods to crimes in communities from western Buncombe County to Greensboro.
According to multiple media outlets, Damron and Waldrop used the Internet and a police scanner to aid them in their crimes. Police allege the two researched towns and businesses on the Internet, picking out targets. They used the police scanner to monitor radio traffic and stay a step ahead of law enforcement officers.
Damron is in custody at the Catawba County Jail. Waldrop made bond and was released in Yadkin County.
Damron’s criminal history dates to 2006 when he was found guilty of a July 2005 felony break-in in Catawba County, according to the N.C. Department of Correction offender-information site. Damron was convicted in March 2008 for a series of felony break-ins, larcenies and safecracking in Caldwell County dating to 2005. He was placed on 60 months’ probation.
Boone police arrested Damron in June 2009 on charges of criminal damage to property and breaking and entering with force. Damron’s address at the time of that arrest was reported as 815 31st St., SW, in Hickory.
One month later, Boone police again arrested Damron, that time on 26 charges including felony breaking and entering, felony larceny and injury to real property over a four-week time period. At the same time, the Long View Police Department served an arrest warrant on Damron for crimes in Catawba County.
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