Free Republic

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...

MOUNT AIRY, N.C. (AP) -- The actress who played Thelma Lou on "The Andy Griffith Show" was robbed in the town that inspired the show's idyllic Mayberry setting, after moving to the area to avoid big city crime. Betty Lou Lynn had her wallet stolen at a shopping center in Mount Airy, the birthplace of Andy Griffith.

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.