THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, October 8, 1995 TAG: 9510060211
SECTION: CHESAPEAKE CLIPPER PAGE: 03 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: Elizabeth Thiel and Eric Feber
LENGTH: Medium: 84 lines
They were lined up in formation, proud in their crisp green-white-and-gold uniforms.
About 100 kids in the Great Bridge High School marching band were practicing a few notes before showing their stuff Saturday evening in an annual band competition at Bayside High in Virginia Beach.
They didn't notice the stranger approaching in the parking lot.
The guy ran up to a female trumpet player at the edge of the formation, yanked her band helmet from her head and ran.
After a moment of shock, an assistant band director and two students took off after the thief.
They chased the guy through a gas station parking lot and into a neighborhood. But fate was not on their side.
``As they rounded another corner. . . he jumped into the back of a pickup truck that was sitting there waiting for him,'' said band director Robert P. Carroll.
The truck sped away.
The only thing the pursuers could see was that the truck was white, a Ford F-150, with some type of plumbing equipment in the back. The license plate was in an odd place, Carroll said, like off to one side of the bumper or in the rear window. The first three letters were ZYX.
Two men were in the front seat, while the thief sat in the back. He was a white male, somewhere between 16 and 20, with unkempt, long, brown hair and longish sideburns.
Why he would want a gold, plastic helmet with a white plume - a replica of the ones Roman soldiers wore in ancient times - is a mystery to Carroll and his students.
``Either someone was in it for a prank, or someone saw something he wanted and just went for it, with no thought of the effect it would have on someone else,'' Carroll said.
The helmet is valued at about $80, he said, and belonged to the Great Bridge Band Parents Association, which pays for the uniforms. The helmet still had many good years of use left, Carroll said.
The cost, however, is not the issue, he said.
``It's a matter of someone stealing something that's a source of pride to the group,'' he said. ``Within a marching band, the uniform is a source of pride.
``It's sort of like at the college level when a fraternity steals another school's mascot.''
Virginia Beach police took a report and are trying to track down the culprit, based upon the descriptions.
From now on, Carroll said, ``We will be positioning the parents in strategic places and keeping a closer eye on people around the group.'' Where's McCurdy?
Have any loyal WFOS listeners been curious as to the whereabouts of station director and broadcast instructor Dennis McCurdy?
He hasn't been on vacation, not in the middle of the new school year.
McCurdy usually spends quite a bit of time behind the microphone, hosting the midday ``Swing Club,'' reporting on Chesapeake City Council doings and offering on-the-air news and weather spots.
But, since last week, he's been absent from the airwaves.
Instead, WFOS listeners have been hearing the steady and mellifluous voice of station engineer Dave Desler introducing Peggy Lee and Glenn Miller tunes during last week's ``Swing Club'' series.
According to Desler, the WFOS chief is ill with some kind of bug.
When he came in on Monday he said he felt like he'd just drank a gallon of Chesapeake water, Desler said. He went home and has been there since.
``I talked to him yesterday (Wednesday) and he still sounds like Andy Devine,'' Desler said, commenting on McCurdy's now gravelly, high-pitched voice. ``Before he hung up, I asked him to yell into the phone, `Hey, Wild Bill! Wait for Me!' ''
For those not up on 1950s television trivia, Andy Devine was a character actor who played Wild Bill Hickok's sidekick, Jingles, on the Saturday morning children's cowboy action series. His trademark was his raspy voice always yelling, ``Hey, Wild Bill. . . ''
``I told him to stay out,'' Desler said. ``We're having an open house here tonight (Thursday) and I didn't want him infecting anyone. He still sounds lousy and right now his batteries are all drained. You should see him when his batteries are out. He looks like a big Energizer Bunny on its side.'' by CNB