Posted on 04/29/2010 7:28:15 PM PDT by iowamark
MOUNT AIRY- Dating Barney Fife doesn’t insulate you from crime. Nor does living in the the town that was the template for the for fictional hamlet of Mayberry.
Betty Lynn, who played the bumbling deputy’s sweetheart on “The Andy Griffith Show” in the 1960s, was sitting outside a Lowes Foods store after shopping and getting money out to pay for a cab home Sunday when a man snatched her wallet with about $130 in it and ran off.
Lynn is 83 but still a force to be reckoned with.
“I jumped up and started yelling, ‘Thief! Thief! and ran after him,” she said Thursday.
He disappeared. She went into the supermarket and employees called police. Within minutes, officer R.T. Bledsoe nabbed a man who had jumped into the Ararat River to escape.
“A squad car came and a policeman who knew who I was put his arm around me and handed me back my wallet. I never thought I’d see it again,” said Lynn, a local celebrity in the Surry County city of 10,000.
Then, in a Mayberry moment appropriate for Andy Griffith’s hometown, he gave Lynn a ride home. And once there, he carried all her groceries upstairs. So far, $43 has been recovered. Talk around town is that the remaining loot may be sailing down the Ararat.
Shirley Walter Guynn, 45, of nearby Cana, Va., was being held Thursday in Surry County Jail in lieu of $10,000 bond on charges of robbery.
Lynn moved to Mount Airy three years ago. She had fallen in love with it during appearances at the annual “Mayberry Days” festivals and was eager to leave Los Angeles, where she had recently been burglarized for the second time. She’d also been robbed in L.A. twice, once on Wilshire Boulevard.
“I don’t want to hurt Mount Airy’s image,” Lynn said. “LAPD never caught any of those guys.”
Big Bubba’s gonna enjoy his new cellmate, Shirley.
That video is brilliant!
I’m glad they nipped this crime spree right in the bud. They budded it.
So we can call him surly Shirley.
Barney was porobably a Republican while libtard Andy and Opie (Obama voters) would be all for the illegals over running NC.
“And don’t call me Shirley!”
I’m a little drunk right now ...but i have to say...where the HELL IS BARNEY AND HIS ONE BULLET WHEN YOU NEED HIM???!!!
I have several times detoured to Mt Airy between here and Charleston beaches vacations.
It is so really cool to here that Thelma Lou lives there but uncool that she was mugged.
I wouldn’t bet on that, especially if you are talking about Don Knotts himself! I think he was a big-time Democrat, but he did serve our country in the military honorably enough! There were a number of other things to admire about him also.
More than likely, he was probably an old cantankerous Democrat of the old type. He sure had a lot of stinky things to say about George Bush!
ping
Willoghby?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.