Thursday, June 17, 2004

Preston, West Virginia



From the Morgantown Dominion Post of June 17, 2004

Robbery foiled in Preston

Store owner holds men at gunpoint until police arrive




When two young men decided to take up a life of crime, they bought the best tools and prepared for everything -- except the owners showing up with a shotgun.



Russell and Erica Rodeheaver followed an "agreed routine" when the alarm was tripped at Casteel's Store and Dairy King, off the Hazelton Exit of Interstate 68, at 12:42 a.m. Wednesday.



"My husband checked the back door, and it was secure. He went to the kitchen door and could see that it was ajar just a little bit," Erica Rodeheaver said.



She kept the headlights of her 2003 Ford Explorer on the building, illuminating it while Russell went around checking the windows. From inside the SUV, she was able to see the doors.



"The back door opened up slightly, and when it did, it was the robbers inside, so I hollered at (Russell), and he came around and told them to come on out, and they did," Erica said. "Of course, he had a shotgun, and he told them to sit down, and we called the law. And they sat there until the law came."



David Elvis Dalton Jr., 23, of Woodland Terrace, Morgantown, and Justin Ray Funk, 21, of Salisbury, N.C., stayed put until police arrived to take them away. Each was charged with breaking and entering, and conspiracy; they were lodged in the Preston County Jail on Wednesday afternoon in lieu of $100,000 bond.

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