Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, June 28, 1990 TAG: 9006280331
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RON BROWN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Authorities last week had seized 1,400 marijuana plants, some of them as much as 7 feet tall.
Joseph Eliza Wimbush, 33, of Stuart was charged with attempted breaking and entering with the intent to commit larceny Wednesday night.
He was in Patrick County Jail awaiting a July preliminary hearing.
Sheriff Jay E. Gregory gave the following summary of events leading to the arrest:
Dispatcher Ronnie Cox first spotted Wimbush on a surveillance camera after he crept through a glass door and crawled on his stomach up a flight of stairs leading to the dispatch area.
When Wimbush saw the door was closed to the dispatch office, he eased back down the steps and went down in the basement were the marijuana had been kept in a storage room.
Cox, thinking Wimbush needed help, yelled, "We're up here."
"Yea, OK," Wimbush hollered back and came up to the dispatch office to talk to Cox and jailer Keith Bocock.
"He scared the hell out of me," when he hollered, Wimbush told Bocock.
After a while Wimbush left.
Bocock and Cox got suspicious and later discovered that someone had tried to pry open the storage room door.
Wimbush was picked by deputies a short time later, and admitted he was trying to steal the marijuana. He also admitted leaving some tools in the basement.
Gregory said the marijuana had been burned Wednesday afternoon under a court order.
by CNB