Durham police nab crime spree suspect [Target carjacking perp]
From Staff Reports : The Herald-Sun, Sep 15, 2006 : 6:53 pm ET
DURHAM -- Police have arrested and charged a Durham man allegedly involved in a two-week crime spree here.
James Daniel Bloodworth, 48, of Gladstone Drive, has been charged with numerous offenses including two carjackings, felony cruelty to animals, assault on a Wal-Mart employee and numerous beer larcenies during the two-week period of late August through early September.
Bloodworth has also been charged in connection with a vehicle chase in Carrboro.
The first incident was reported at 5:30 a.m., Aug. 24, in a parking lot on East Lakewood Avenue. According to Durham police, a 53-year-old woman was getting out of her car en route to work when a man armed with a knife approached her. The woman got back in her car, but the man dragged her out of the car by her ankles and fled in the her 1996 burgundy Infiniti.
The woman suffered minor injuries.
Two days later, the stolen Infiniti was spotted at the scene of a robbery on South Miami Boulevard. A 66-year-old Spring Lake woman told officers a man in a burgundy Infiniti pulled up next to her, approached her car and took her purse. The woman, who was holding her pet Chihuahua in her arms, tried to get her purse back, putting the dog down in the car as she unsuccessfully reached for her purse.
The alleged carjacker threw the dog out of the car, causing non-life threatening injuries to the dog's head. The suspect fled with the victim's purse.
The stolen Infiniti was reportedly seen at the sites of several beer thefts throughout Durham on Aug. 26 and 27.
The stolen Infiniti was recovered on South Roxboro Street at 6:39 p.m., Aug. 27.
Two hours later, a woman was robbed of her car in the parking lot of the Target retail store on Chapel Hill Boulevard.
In that case, the woman reported she was getting into her vehicle when a man armed with a knife approached her, knocked her to the ground and grabbed her car keys. The suspect had difficulty starting the car and several people approached the car to prevent him from taking it. The suspect finally managed to flee in the car, a 2003 Toyota Prius.
On Sept. 2, Carrboro police officers spotted the stolen Prius parked in a fire lane at a convenience store. A man came out of the store with stolen beer and sped away when officers attempted to stop the car. The chase ended when the Prius wrecked, but the driver, allegedly Bloodworth, escaped.
Four days later Durham police were dispatched to a disturbance and assault at a Wal-Mart retail store on North Roxboro Road.
When store employees attempted to stop a man suspected of shoplifting several ink cartridges, the man slashed the employee on the arm with a box cutter. Employees tackled the man and held him until officers arrived. Bloodworth was charged with robbery with a dangerous weapon, assault with a deadly weapon inflicting serious injury and possession of drug paraphernalia.
He was placed in Durham County Jail in lieu of $40,000 bond.
Bloodworth was later identified as a suspect in the carjacking at Target after a video of the robbery was shown on a local television station. Investigators then linked him to the carjacking on Lakewood Avenue, the robbery on South Miami Boulevard, the chase in Carrboro and five larcenies at Durham convenience stores.
Bloodworth has been charged with two counts of robbery with a dangerous weapon (the Target and Lakewood Avenue incidents), one count of common-law robbery (the Miami Boulevard incident), felony cruelty to animals, two counts of possession of a stolen vehicle and five counts of misdemeanor larceny.
He is also facing traffic charges resulting from the chase in Carrboro.
http://www.heraldsun.com/durham/4-770158.html
* The police logs of the Herald-Sun make entertaining late night reading.
Number one reason anyone still reads the rag, besides the ads.
No shortage of stories in this town.
So the DPD cops couldn't catch him even when they were right behind him in a chase but a bunch of Wal-Mart employees could.