THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, November 2, 1995 TAG: 9511020373
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY LANE DEGREGORY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BUXTON LENGTH: Medium: 92 lines
While investigating a domestic assault case, police found a piece of the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse lens that has been missing for more than eight years.
Three of the original brass-and-crystal sections of the 125-year-old lens were stolen from a National Park Service facility in February 1987. Almost two years later, Dare County sheriff's deputies received an anonymous tip and recovered most pieces of those sections from a marsh between Avon and Buxton. No one was ever prosecuted after that find - and officers said they thought the case was closed.
But on Oct. 21, when deputies entered the house of Michael D. Quidley, a Hatteras Island restaurant owner, to interview his wife, they learned where to find another section of the historic antique.
``During discussions about the domestic case, Mr. Quidley's wife made statements about there still being pieces of that lighthouse lens in the house,'' National Park Service Ranger Ed Whitaker said Tuesday. ``Based on that information, we obtained a search warrant for the house. When we confronted Mr. Quidley with the warrant, he willingly showed us upstairs, to his attic, where the lens was located.
``There's only one source on this island that lens could've come from,'' Whitaker said. ``I'm sure there are still other pieces around here somewhere.''
In the domestic assault case, Quidley, 49, was charged with second-degree kidnapping, assault with a deadly weapon attempting to inflict serious injury, and assault on a female for actions against his wife, Candice Quidley, that took place Oct. 9.
Quidley also was charged with assault with a deadly weapon inflicting serious injury with intent to kill and first-degree kidnapping for actions against a Hatteras Island man, John Rice, that occurred on the same day.
According to police reports, Quidley allegedly tried to break Rice's neck with his hands, drove him around the village, then dropped him off at the medical center in Buxton - where a helicopter flew Rice to a Hampton Roads hospital.
Quidley was released on bond Oct. 17. Court officials said Wednesday that a trial has not been scheduled in either of those cases.
No charges relating to the recovery of the lighthouse lens have been filed. Whitaker said he forwarded information to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
FBI Agent David Parker said his organization will consult with the U.S. attorney's office about the incident before the end of the year.
``It will be up to the U.S. attorney whether to prosecute this case or not,'' Parker said Wednesday from his Elizabeth City office. ``They have to determine whether it's still prosecutable.''
The statute of limitations has run out on the theft of the lens, Whitaker said. But charges could be filed under a possession of stolen property statute. Since the lighthouse is owned by the U.S. government, the offense would be a federal crime.
Replacing the stolen lens prisms would cost about $3,000, Whitaker said. ``But the historic value is another, substantially larger figure.''
``The value of that lens is intrinsic,'' National Park Service spokesman Bob Woody agreed. ``It is part of our national heritage. And we're absolutely pleased to get it back.''
When the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse was finished in 1870, it was the tallest brick beacon in the country and had one of the brightest lamps ever to illuminate an ocean. The 208-foot tower included a state-of-the-art Fresnel lens that was built in Paris and could beam light from a whale-oil lantern up to 17 miles off the beach. The lens had 22 individual crystal prisms, each about 3.5 feet long, 1.5 feet tall and weighing about 118 pounds. Slightly curved in the center - and constructed of a green-yellow glass - the prisms amplified and directed light beams across the sea to show sailors the area's dangerous shoals.
The lens was used at the lighthouse until 1935, when a temporary steel structure was built in Buxton Woods because the oceanfront beacon was threatened by beach erosion. When the lighthouse was reopened several years later, electric power lit its large lamp. Four sections of the Fresnel lens are displayed in the visitors' center at the lighthouse.
The rest were stored in the boathouse at Little Kinnakeet Lifesaving Station in Avon.
In mid-February, 1987, police say, someone cut a locked chain on the gate to the station, pried off a lock from the boathouse door and stole three sections of the original lighthouse lens. Outer Banks organizations offered a $2,500 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the thieves. Police got an anonymous tip about the lenses' location - abandoned in marsh grass near the Pamlico Sound, about two miles north of Buxton - but they never arrested anyone.
``Ultimately, we knew someone would come forward with all these pieces,'' Woody said. ``We weren't worried the prisms would rot or blow away in the wind. This lens will last a long, long time.''
KEYWORDS: ARREST KIDNAPPING ASSAULT ROBBERY by CNB