MULTPLE ARRESTS MADE IN CONNECTION TO BURGLARY AT AREA BUSINESSAuthorities in Butler County say that multiple arrests have been made after items were recovered that had been reported stolen from an area business.
Investigator Randal Huddleston with the Butler County Sheriff’s Department tells KWOC News more about the arrests.
Randal Huddleston:
In early April 2017 Butler County deputies were dispatched to Triggers Gun Shop in reference to stolen property. Upon arrival they were advised that a 55-gallon external fuel tank along with other items used in constructing new buildings were missing. Employees with triggers gun shop advised they had video surveillance that showed a white GMC Z71 with a toolbox in the back and what appeared to be a spare tire with a steel rim on the back passenger side as a suspect vehicle. Last Friday April 21st Butler County deputies were again dispatched to 1722 Cravens Road which is Knuckle Brothers Construction in reference to theft from their property. Upon arriving deputies were advised they were missing chains, cordless drills, saws, impact drills, batteries, and chargers and they believe that a former employee of theirs by the name of Gordon Stroud may have been the one that had been stealing from them. This past Saturday on April 22nd, Butler County Deputies were dispatched to the parking lot of Big Lots in Poplar Bluff to meet with Jim Acres who is an employee at triggers gun shop. He believed he had observed a white GMC Z71 matching the description of the vehicle from triggers surveillance video sitting in the parking lot and a white male occupant in the driver's seat. Upon the deputies arrival they observed the vehicle with a license plate and making contact with the driver, they identified him as Michael Arnold. He advised that he had borrowed the vehicle from Gordon Stroud. Michael Arnold voluntarily offered to take deputies to his property and gave them consent to walk around the property to check for stolen items. A search warrant was applied for and was granted for the search and seizure of stolen items at Michael Arnold’s property. While at the residence of Michael Arnold, Gordon Stroud was located inside the residence along with other items of stolen property which was found to belong to Knuckles Brothers Construction as well as a gentleman by the name of Donald Stanley who was also located inside the residence who had an outstanding no bond warrant through probation and parole. All three subjects are from Poplar Bluff and all three were arrested. Charges being sought on Michael Arnold and Gordon Stroud are possession of stolen property and Donald Stanley was incarcerated for the outstanding probation and parole warrant as well as possession of controlled substance.
INCOMING FRONT BRINGS WITH IT THE POSSIBILITY OF SEVERE WEATHER A front crossing over Southeast Missouri today and tonight is bringing with it the possibility of some severe weather.
KWOC News spoke with Rick Shanklin, the Warning Coordination Meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Paducah, Kentucky, who said that all modes of severe weather are possible, including tornados.
Rick Shanklin:
Severe weather chances will be increasing across Southeast Missouri Wednesday afternoon and Wednesday evening. All modes of severe weather are possible, large hail, damaging thunderstorm winds, and even a couple of tornados are not out of the question. We do have a severe weather risk across all of Southeast Missouri. The greatest risk, a level 3 of 5, or enhanced risk, is around the Poplar Bluff and Greenville area, and points westward. That’s mainly for the afternoon hours Wednesday. We do think the storms will evolve into a line orientation as they move east across Southeast Missouri Wednesday evening and then eventually ending as we move into the late evening hours Wednesday.
According to the National Weather Service, multiple rounds of thunderstorms are also expected to begin on Friday and continue throughout the weekend. Portions of Southeast Missouri could see three to five inches of rainfall or higher.
SPECIAL OLYMPICS SPRING GAMES SCHEDULED FOR TODAY IN POPLAR BLUFF The Special Olympics Spring Games have been scheduled for today in Poplar Bluff.
According to the Poplar Bluff School District, the event is scheduled to begin at 9 am this morning at Fred M. Morrow Stadium.
The event is open to the public.
MAN ALLEGEDLY BITES OFF WOMAN’S FINGER DURING ALTERCATION A Poplar Bluff man is facing assault charges after he alleged bit off a woman’s finger during an altercation.
KWOC News spoke with Detective Joey Woodruff with the Poplar Bluff Police Department about the incident.
Joey Woodruff:
On Monday morning around 7 am, Officer Sean Pringer was dispatched to an address on North 11th Street regarding an assault. As Officer Pringer arrived on scene he contacted the female victim. The victim said that Justin C. Williams, 27, of Poplar Bluff, bit her finger off while she was trying to break up a fight between her son and Williams. The victim also told Officer Pringer that she struck Williams in the top of the head with a brick after Williams bit her finger. At approximately 7:45 a.m. Officer Pringer made contact with the suspect, Justin Williams, at an address in the 500 block of Cynthia Street. During a conversation between Officer Pringer and Williams he was asked about the victim's finger and how it was bitten off. Williams said he thought he was biting the victim's son. Williams was placed under arrest on the charge of second-degree assault and later lodged in the Butler County Justice Center after declining medical treatment for a laceration to his head. The victim was transported to a Poplar Bluff hospital for treatment.
FCA BANQUET SCHEDULD FOR THURSDAY NIGHT The Annual Fellowship of Christian Athletes Banquet will be held this week in Poplar Bluff.
Bill Ray with the FCA says the banquet will begin at around 5:45 pm tomorrow night.
BILL RAY:
This Thursday night is our annual FCA banquet. It starts at 5:45 to 6:30 with a meet, greet, and eat. That will be at the Gamma Conference Center behind Gamma Labs, they’ve got a conference center that’s really nice and the Murphys have let us use that for the past several years, it’s an excellent facility for us to do that. I would encourage you to come the first 45 minutes is just going to get to know some people that you probably will know if you've supported FCA or been involved with FCA. We won't have the first sponsor of FCA that was a Coach Pureyer back in 1971/72 era and then coach Telly took over because coach Pureyer left. I came in and started coaching football with Coach Telly and helping him with FCA, Coach Sievers came in and he started helping with FCA and he is still doing that today. I'm going to talk about this history of FCA specifically and in general in Southeast Missouri. We're going to be talking about that, the history from 71 up till now. It's going to be a good night. Please call 280-0932 if you got any questions. If you want it come, it would be nice if you let me know but you can come anyway. Some of you out there have probably been involved with FCA right here in Poplar Bluff back in the seventies, eighties, nineties, or the 2000’s and you're welcome to come. The auction items from the baseball world with autographed collages or shadow boxes Albert Pujols, Yadier Molina, Stan Musial, Ozzie Smith, Mike Matheny, and then now our new guy Dexter Fowler, but played last year we have a picture of him and his teammates after they won the World Series. So that's going to be some good stuff. Golfers we have Arnold Palmer collage, signed autograph, and also a picture of him and Jack Nicklaus together. Jordan Spieth teeing off down 18, so it's some neat stuff and you'll enjoy just seeing them and then visiting with people, eating, and if you can stick around then for the banquet you’re gonna hear the history of FCA and the future of FCA.
NEW PEPSI MID AMERICA DISTRIBUTION FACILITY OPENS IN THE POPLAR BLUFF AREA Today’s Talk KWOC was live at the Grand Opening of a new Pepsi Mid America Distribution Facility yesterday in Poplar Bluff.
During the event we spoke with Pepsi Mid America President Kieth Dickens about what the facility will do in the community.
Keith Dickens:
We had a grand opening for Poplar Bluff facility and we had a very good turnout, support of the community, which has supported us all through our construction project. We employ about 75 people in the area and we're real proud of the efficiency of this system because we carry no inventory on site. It's a rolling inventory and a just-in-time delivery system. That was the purpose of the event today and we’re just so proud to be a part of this community. You’ve got a nice office facility but we do have a large, about a 15-acre facility. We have three outparcels of buildings; the office building itself, a vending building where we do the equipment repair, and then a food and snack building that we have housing for our full line vending business. We service now micro-markets which is a self-checkout type convenience store concept inside a industrial type business. Then we also have vending that we do in that you see in the normal setting for a business environment where we have Beverages and snacks as well as cold food and fresh food. Well we got great market share in this area and we’re blessed for that support we get, but it’s been a lot of years of building the brands and we have some of the biggest name brands in the beverage industry, Pepsi, Mountain Dew, Starbucks, Lipton Tea, Dr. Pepper, 7Up, Crush.
