A Salisbury couple was charged Thursday night after a neighbor spotted them breaking into an Oakwood Avenue home.

The neighbor said he believed a break-in was occurring as he was on the phone. A police officer arrived and went behind the home to see the door to a storage building was open. The officer approached a man and a woman at a white pickup.

The man, Russell Lee Samples, 41, told police he’d just moved out of the home and needed to return to get more items. He said his mother had already turned the keys over to his landlord and he was waiting for her to bring it back.

The woman with Samples was identified as Amanda Ann Lankford, 23. Police saw footprints on the top of an air conditioning unit outside a window with a screen that had been pushed up, a report said.

The officer contacted the landlord, who confirmed Samples did move out of the house, but he did not have permission be in the house.   

The shoe impression matched Lankford, the report said.

Samples, who lists his address as 312 Oakwood Ave., was charged with felony breaking and entering. Lankford, of the 1800 block of Harrison Road, was also charged with felony breaking and entering.

Samples was charged in April with larceny from an Oakwood Avenue home. He was charged the same month with obtaining property by false pretenses after a different woman was accused of stealing $145 worth of merchandise from Walmart and he returned the items for a gift card. The woman was seen getting into a white pickup driven by Samples. He was shown on video circling the parking lot and then going into the store for the return. He used his own ID and the store issued him two gift cards.

In May 2013, Samples and a another woman were charged with breaking and entering and larceny after they stole guns and ammunition from a home on Hurley School Road.

Samples has been convicted of misdemeanor larceny and other misdemeanor offenses. He was convicted in 2013 of felony larceny of firearms. He is on probation for the 2013 conviction.

Lankford is also on probation for a September conviction for misdemeanor trespassing. She was also convicted of indecent exposure, consuming alcohol while under the age of 21, shoplifting and resisting arrest.

Samples remains in the Rowan County Detention Center under a $2,500 secured bond and is expected in court today. He has a number of pending 2014 cases in Rowan and Forsyth counties.

Lankford remains in the county jail under a $1,000 secured bond and is also expected in court this morning.

Contact reporter Shavonne Potts at 704-797-4253.