Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, September 27, 1994 TAG: 9409270127
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-3 EDITION: STATE
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: SCHUYLER LENGTH: Medium
``It's shook up our little community, and we don't like it,'' Becky Fogg, a burglary victim and public-relations director of The Waltons Mountain Museum, said Monday.
There have been more than a dozen burglaries in and around this town of 400 residents which otherwise has changed little since the days when Earl Hamner grew up.
Hamner's recollections of his Depression-era youth in Schuyler were the basis for the television series ``The Waltons'' from 1971 to 1981. Episodes are still rerun on the Family Channel and in several foreign countries.
Sarah Lynch said she lost almost every piece of her gardening equipment - chain saws, a rotary cultivator, light tools - that was left outside. She had moved to the country to escape just such problems.
``The lawn mower doesn't go under the porch any more, it comes into the house,'' she said. ``You take exactly the same precautions as you would in [Washington,] D.C. That's not the reason I moved to Schuyler.''
Salem, N.J., residents Carl and Roxy Ballentine bought a retirement home in Schuyler five years ago to get away from urban crime. Their Nelson County home has been hit by thieves twice within a year.
In August, they lost their washer, dryer and air conditioner along with priceless keepsakes, such as Carl Ballentine's military medals.
Nelson County Sheriff Ronald Wood said investigators from the Virginia State Police and his department are preparing to make arrests in connection with the thefts.
But many residents remain concerned about police protection. At a community meeting this month, 50 to 100 people angrily confronted Wood about what they said was indifferent police response to the crimes.
Wood said there are times when the sheriff's department just can't get to everything at once because there are only two deputies per shift to cover the 471 square miles and about 13,000 people of Nelson County.
Memo: Shorter version ran in Metro edition.