Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, June 26, 1993                   TAG: 9306260148
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

UNBURNED CROSS REPORTED IN YARD

Charlotte Louise Lamb, 29, said she found the unburned, 4-foot cross, wrapped in toilet tissue early Friday, shortly after she reported to police that someone was breaking into her house.

The cross appeared to have been made out of remnants of a baby crib. Two wooden slats were bolted together to form the cross.

Neighbors said it was the second cross found in the 900 block of Stewart Avenue this week. One woman said her son found a burned wooden cross in her yard on Wednesday.

"I didn't call right away," said Maybell Ransom, 63. "I didn't think it was serious."

Roanoke police said they have no record of Ransom's call.

Ransom is black. Lamb is white.

Lamb said she looked out her door and saw a man running from the vicinity of Ransom's house into another neighbor's yard. She said she ran to her back door and yelled to the man to leave or she would call police.

She said she later found the cross lying near a flowering bush in her neighbor's yard.