Alert neighbors in Beaufort, Carteret County helped lead lawmen to a suspect wanted for breaking into an elderly man's home and stealing hundreds of dollars.
81-year-old Stacey Chadwick says when he came home from exercising, a stranger was parked in his driveway. He parked out in the street and that stranger sped off. When he approached his house he noticed a window on the back door broken out and $480.00 he had inside was missing.
Beaufort police chief Steve Lewis says neighbors saw the car in the driveway and knew it was out of place. They wrote down the license plate number and gave it to police who tracked down 33-year-old Tia Best and charged her in the break-in and theft..
Chadwick was thankful for the observant neighbors. "They tried to help me any way they could. They knew I was upset because I was nervous. And when I saw all that money gone I got real nervous, but like I say I've got some good friends."
Police say Best has been arrested and charged by several different law enforcement agencies in Carteret County over the past couple years for breaking into cars and homes.
