SALISBURY — Three people were charged with breaking into a vacant Mount Hope Church Road home. One of the suspects lives on the same street as the home.
A neighbor reported someone breaking into a home at in the 4900 block of Mount Hope Church Road. The neighbor saw people walk into the home and into an adjacent building. The incident occurred Jan. 31 at around 11:30 a.m.
Authorities arrested three and charged each of them with felony breaking and entering and larceny.
They are: Davina Teresa Thomas, 32, of Villa Woods Drive, Salisbury; Daniel Torres, Jr., 26, of North Woods Forest Drive, Charlotte; and Christina Nicole Burgess, 23, of Mount Hope Church Road, Salisbury.
All three remained in the Rowan County jail Monday, Thomas and Burgess under $15,000 secured bond apiece and Torres under a $20,000 secured bond.
A deputy with the Rowan County Sheriff’s Office spotted Torres walking out the back door of the home with scrap metal items in his hands, a report said.
Torres dropped the metal when a deputy yelled for him to stop. Torres walked to the back of the property where Thomas was located.
The deputy asked what they were doing, and Torres and Thomas told the officer they were “cutting through” the property.
Torres told the deputy he was on a walk through the woods. Torres also said he didn’t have any woods near his Charlotte home. He said he stumbled upon the house on his walk, said Capt. John Sifford.
Torres then told the deputy he thought the home was a “meth house.”
There is no indication drugs were sold at the house, Sifford said.
When the officer asked what Torres and Thomas were doing with the metal, the two said they saw the items and thought they’d sell them for scrap, Sifford said.
As deputies were detaining the two at the house, another deputy saw Davis walking along the road nearby.
She matched the description given by a neighbor and was taken back the vacant home.
The homeowner, who lived nearby, arrived and told officers he was missing property including a stove, copper wiring and miscellaneous kitchen items.
Contact reporter Shavonne Potts at 704-797-4253.