DOBSON — A man is in jail after reporting himself to the Surry County Sheriff’s Office from within the Mount Airy home he had just broken into.
According to Sheriff Graham Atkisnson, Clifton McAlexander Willis, 39, had called in on June 6 and said he was wet and cold and had broken into a residence on Old Highway 601.
Officers responding to the call saw a broken window at the house and someone inside, the sheriff said.
The found Willis inside the kitchen eating, Atkinson said.
The suspect repeated to officers “I’m wet and cold, and I’m hungry,” Atkinson said. “He broke in to get something to eat.”
The patrol officers’ report states that the suspect had helped himself to some snacks and drank some soft drinks found in the victim’s kitchen, said Captain Lloyd Terry.
“He’d been doing some meth,” the sheriff said.
After the patrol officers took Willis into custody, they realized the residents, Robert Royall and Whitley McEntire, had been at home and asleep during the entire incident.
“Apparently the homeowners didn’t realize he was in the house,” said Terry.
Willis is being held in the county jail under a $11,000 secured bond on charges of first degree burglary, felony larceny after breaking and entering, felony possession of stolen goods or property and misdemeanor injury to real property, according to Terry.
He is scheduled to appear in court on July 25.
Atkinson commented on the bizarre circumstances of the arrest.
“It will be 31 years at the end of this week,” he said, referring to his term as sheriff. “You think you’ve seen all you’re going to see.”
