The news, right now

Jason Sandford

Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.

1

Driveway shooting
WLOSer Holly Headache led off the report with a whopper of a story – a man shot somebody just for driving into his driveway and turning around.

The incident happened Saturday night about 9:30 on Clear Creek Road, Holly told us. A couple turned into a driveway to turn around and got shot by the homeowner, Holly told us. The dude came out onto the porche and opened fire – six shots pierced the vehicle they were in, with two bullets hitting the woman in the car. The shooter used a high-powered rifle, according to the report. Holly showed us video of her talking to a man apparently in the vehicle during the shooting, but it’s never clear.

The shooter was arrested but got out of jail after posting bond.

There’s a significantly different version of this same story in this morning’s daily newspaper. According to that story, the couple in the car “drove through the lawn” on the shooter’s property as they were leaving the next door neighbor’s home – the neighbor being the brother of the guy in the car. The newspaper story said the shooter had complained of people trespassing and damaging his property.

So – which version is closest to the truth? Regardless, it doesn’t give the homeowner the right to start shooting people.

Fatal wrecks
There were a couple of fatal wrecks. On Friday night on South Turkey Creek Road, a car crashed and a man died, but he wasn’t found until Saturday. And a Canton man flipped his vehicle and died.

Bar code fraud
WLOSers told us briefly about a man arrested after caught stealing from Lowe’s. The WLOS report said a dude was tampering with bar codes to buy merchandise at lower prices. Police want people to be on the lookout for this scam, and they’re also looking for a U-Haul truck loaded with said merchandise.

Here’s more detail, again according to this morning’s newspaper – the suspect was switching bar codes on merchandise and about tried to buy goods valued at about $1,500 for about $70. First of all, that is one greedy thief – did he really think he could get away with that? “Yeah, that’s one heck of a deal y’all got going on 500 board feet of lumber, that chrome-plated gas grill and those power drills and saws. All for just 70 bucks!” And what is the cashier thinking? OK, in this case, maybe the cashier did question the purchase, and that’s how the dude got caught. But I could see a lot of cashiers just saying, “Wow, you’re right. That’s what the computer says, so it must be right.”

Spotted
Russ “Beefcake” Bowen was spotted last week making a bee-line for the rug section of TJ Maxx. Sounds like Russ is really nesting. Russ, who is the significant other?