Two people were arrested on Tuesday in connection with a two-week crime spree in Laurel County.
The Laurel County sheriff has accused Joshua N. Westerfield, 23, and Natalee K. Wood, 29, both of London, of burglarizing a local grocery store, and Westerfield is accused of robbing the same grocery store and burglarizing two homes.
The case began to unfold Monday afternoon, when relatives and a neighbor of a woman who lives off Ky. 80 5 miles west of London noticed a strange car in her driveway and went to the house to investigate, according to a news release.
As they approached, a man and a woman ran out of the house and drove away in a blue Toyota Camry.
The witnesses were able to get the car's license plate information, and sheriff's deputies traced the car to Westerfield and Wood, who lived in an apartment on Ky. 1956 near the Laurel-Rockcastle county line, police said.
The car, which belonged to Westerfield's grandparents, was found soon afterward engulfed in flames about 2 miles from the apartment, the sheriff said.
On Monday night, the sheriff's department executed a search warrant at the couple's apartment and found several items that had been used in an armed robbery of Ott's Grocery Store on Nov. 30 and a burglary of the same store on Dec. 10.
The couple was arrested at the apartment on Tuesday afternoon.
Westerfield is charged with first-degree robbery of the grocery, third degree burglary of the grocery, second-degree burglary of the home near Ky. 80, possession of a handgun by a convicted felon and first-degree burglary, of an apartment next door to Westerfield and Wood's. The sheriff says Westerfield took a pistol from that apartment and used it to rob the grocery store.
Wood is charged with third-degree burglary of the grocery.
Both were taken to the Laurel County Correctional Center.
Copyright 2011 - The Lexington Herald-Leader, Ky.
McClatchy-Tribune News Service
