By BOB HIGH

A young couple living with the man’s mother along Ashford Malpass Road in the Delco community has been arrested and charged with at least nine break-ins and thefts of various items during the first two weeks in June.

“We’re sure of the nine charges and there will probably be some more cases charged to them. We’ve recovered some the property they stole and we feel we can get some more of the items they pawned,” reported Sheriff’s Detective Mack Brazelle.

Randy William “Ham” Hill, 23, and Shawnee Beryl Prether, 23, both with the Delco and Leland addresses, are charged. Authorities are seeking a second man from Leland and warrants have been issued for him, the detective said.

Hill and Prether are the parents of a 4-month-old daughter and when the couple went together to break into storage buildings they usually took the child with them, Brazelle pointed out.

The detective said Hill, Prether and the second man are all heroin addicts and when they had enough items to pawn for cash between $60 and $90 they would take the items to pawn dealers in Leland and Wilmington.

High on heroin

“They would go and buy some heroin in Wilmington and after a couple of hours of being high, they’d go back to their homes, spend the night and start all over again the next day,” the detective noted.

The couple is charged with forcing entry to various storage buildings – many of them along Water Tank Road, the road between where they were living and the four-laned U.S. 74-76 -- and stealing items ranging from generators, several types of saws, paint sprayers to welding equipment.

Brazelle said the Sheriff’s Office realized there was a concentration of victims from the earliest reports, but there were no leads in the cases.

“Ten days ago a resident of Water Tank Road was sitting on his front porch when a little black car, a Ford Escort, pulled off the road into his driveway. When the driver and the resident locked eyes, the car immediately backed out and continued down the road.

“The resident realized immediately the couple in the car was out stealing, so he got into a vehicle and followed and obtained the license plate number,” Brazelle said.

Pawn shop records

“By the next day we had pawn records and enough information to move. After another 24 hours we had warrants and began to look for Hill and the woman,” he added.

Hill was arrested at his mother’s mobile home and confessed, Brazelle said. The woman was arrested on June 22. Brazelle said fraud charges – based on getting cash from pawn shops for items they didn’t own – in Leland and Wilmington are pending against Hill, Prether and the second man.

“There were four thefts they told us about where the victims didn’t know their storage buildings had been entered and items taken from them,” Brazelle said.

The detective said two generators, two chain saws, a table saw, chop saw and paint sprayer have been recovered and some of them returned to owners.

Delco-area victims noted in the first batch of warrants include Scott Taylor, Edward Beck, Linda Wallace, Lunsford Brewer and Heidi Showers, all from Water Tank Road; Magdy Farag of Green’s Chapel Road; Gregory Smith of Livingston Chapel Road; Timothy Ellis of Connor Road; and Doyle Elkins of U.S. 74-76.