Daylight Home Invasion in Creston

By Allison Canter

On Thursday morning, Feb. 5, sometime between the hours of 6:30 and 10 a.m., a home at 331B Eller Road

in Creston was broken into and several items taken. The home belongs to Jerry and Jean Phillips.

The break in was discovered when a neighbor came to the home around 10 a.m. to clean and found the house ransacked. She immediately called the Phillips' and the Ashe County Sheriff's Department.

The break in is under investigation; however, law enforcement officials had not released a statement at press time.

It appeared the criminal or criminals propped the Phillips' ladder against the back of the house and broke out a back window with a shovel to get in, according to Amy Houck. The ladder and shovel were found by Jerry Phillips, later in a branch behind the house.

Houck said the criminals broke a bed, took several rifles and a pistol, two jewelry boxes full of jewelry, including many items of sentimental value. Jean's diamond engagement ring from Jerry as well as her mother's ring were taken. A fireproof safe was also taken but later recovered from about a mile up into the woods behind the home.

Houck said that the living room was torn apart and the drawers of the armoires were destroyed. "Whether there was more than one person, I don't know, but they had apparently left through the front door and went back up into the woods behind their house," she said.

Houck said, the Sheriff's Department tracked the footprints of the criminal(s) all the way across the land behind the Phillips' home and to where it meets up with another road, which goes up into Three Top Mountain Development.

According to Houck, authorities believe that one of the criminals cut themselves as blood was found on the carpet, on the curtain as well as on the recovered safe. The sheriff's department took the safe as evidence in the case.

Houck said the sheriff's department believe that the criminal(s) may have been watching and waiting for the couple to leave for work.

Houck said some credit cards as well as personal information was also taken from the home and the safe.

The Sheriff's Department encourages anyone with information about the break in or who might have committed the crime to contact them at (336) 846-5633 or the Crime Stoppers Line at (336) 846-4188.

At times during a down economy, break-ins and theft crimes increase. Residents are encouraged to keep their doors and windows locked and neighbors should help keep a watch on each other's property to avoid break-ins and larceny.