• Former Tabor City Police Detective Lt. Barry Neal was indicted last week after investigation involving two pistols taken from police evidence storage and pawned.

By BOB HIGH
Staff Writer

Barry Neal, a Tabor City police officer who was acting police chief in the town for 90 days in late 2005 and early 2006, was indicted last week on two counts of taking pistols from police evidence lockers and pawning them for personal gain.

Neal, a 36-year-old graduate of Whiteville High School, served six and a half years on the Tabor City department, his first law enforcement position.

The indictments were obtained by State Bureau of Investigation Agent Mack Warner Wednesday, and Neal was arrested Thursday.

The crimes involve the pawning of two pistols taken from which had been stored as police evidence.
Neal is charged with stealing a Hi-Point 9mm pistol on Dec. 7, 2006, and on Feb. 22, 2007, he is charged with the theft of a Ruger .45-caliber firearm.

The pistols were discovered in the pawn business when federal Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms personnel audited pawnshop records after the business was sold.
Both pistols had been involved in cases that had been adjudicated, and their absence did not jeopardize an active case, it was reported.

Neal actually made payments to retain “ownership” of one of the pistols, but records show the payments lapsed and the guns became property of the pawnshop.

Neal resigned his police position as a detective on July 7. He had been hired in December 2000, and was elevated to detective lieutenant in 2005.

He was acting chief when Roy Norris left the chief’s position in November 2005, and remained in that post until current Chief Donald Dowless was hired March 1, 2006, records show.
Lt. Neal had been demoted to ordinary detective about six months after Dowless took office, according to Tabor City records.

Neal graduated from Whiteville High School in 1989 and then spent four years in the U.S. Army.
Records show he obtained his basic law enforcement training at Southeastern Community College. He got his BLET degree in 2000.

Neal spent part of his work history – before becoming a law enforcement officer -- as a school bus driver for the Whiteville City Schools.