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

DATE: FRIDAY, March 3, 1995                   TAG: 9503030108
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-2   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: KATHY LOAN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG                                LENGTH: Medium

ARRESTS MADE IN CHRISTIANSBURG BREAK-INS|

Town police have charged seven people in connection with break-ins and thefts at several businesses that resulted in losses of more than $40,000.

Authorities had been investigating the cases since October as restaurants, car repair shops and gun shops reported attempted break-ins and break-ins, said Lt. Doug Marrs.

Break-ins were attempted at G & G Gun Shop on Roanoke Street and Custom Gun Shop on Radford Street, Marrs said. Break-ins and thefts occurred at Country Cooking, the Huckleberry Inn restaurant and Pilot Homes on Roanoke Street and at Triangle Lanes near New River Valley Mall. Thefts were also reported from a car at New River Valley Mall and from cars at Cambria Service Center and A &A Transmissions.

Pry bars were used to enter the businesses through doors and windows, Marrs said.

Police have charged Michael David Lovern, 19, of the 3300 block of Brookside Drive, with two counts of attempted breaking and entering, four counts of breaking and entering, seven counts of grand larceny, three counts of petty larceny and one count of insurance fraud.

Police charged Christopher L. Foster, 19, of the 200 block of Dunlap Drive, with one count each of breaking and entering and grand larceny.

Marrs said Foster was charged after officers conducting surveillance saw a man "breaking out of Kanode Motors," on North Franklin Street on Jan. 13.

One juvenile faces 11 charges in the thefts and break-ins; two face single charges of insurance fraud; a fourth teen-ager is charged with two grand larcenies and two petty thefts; and a fifth faces two counts of attempted breaking and entering and one count of grand larceny.

Insurance fraud charges were entered against Lovern and two of the youths, Marrs said, because an investigation revealed that the car from which a $1,945 stereo was taken at New River Valley Mall belonged to one of the youths. Marrs said the theft was reported to the insurance company for reimbursement of $1,200.

Marrs said an estimated $20,000 in money and items were taken, and about the same amount of damage was done to the businesses. Pilot Homes alone sustained about $10,000 in damages and vandalism.

by CNB