Latest news with #TheMountaineer
Yahoo
14-05-2025
- Yahoo
Veteran K-9 bomb-sniffer comes out of retirement to serve with Waynesville PD
May 14—Teco is a handsome devil and a very good boy. But don't let those roughish good looks fool you. The 8-year-old Belgian Malinois/German Shepherd mix is a highly skilled K-9 officer and Waynesville's newest bomb sniffer — only the third in the department's history. "We hadn't had a bomb dog since we lost K-9 Luke to retirement," said Lt. Billy Benhart of the Waynesville Police Department. K-9 Luke served on the force for the better part of a decade until his retirement in January of last year. After K-9 Luke's retirement, then-Assistant Police Chief Brandon Gilmore told The Mountaineer that "Everyone knows that we don't get a tremendous amount of calls for service regarding explosives, but the value of what (a bomb sniffing dog and handler) provides to a community is efficiency in searching a location where a threat has been made as well as the feeling of security that a complete and through search has been conducted and everything is safe." So the department was looking to add another K-9 officer to its ranks — even before last month's Historic Courthouse bomb-threat, when a bomb-sniffing dog had to be brought in from Buncombe County to lend a paw. To fill the gap permanently, Master Patrol Officer Craig Cimaszewski suggested Teco. The partners went all the way back to Officer Cimaszewski's days as a police officer in Florida. When Cimaszewski retired from the Tampa Police Department in 2022, Teco was a more experienced dog than anyone else on the force could handle, Cimaszewski explained. So the TPD gave Teco to Cimaszewski, and the pair traveled up to Western North Carolina to enjoy their retirement. A few years later, Cimaszewski joined the Waynesville Police Department while Teco stayed home. But when the town started casting about for another bomb-sniffer, it just so happened that Cimaszewski had a perfect candidate waiting in the wings. "The town benefited enormously from having a fully trained dog at no cost to Waynesville," Cimaszewski told The Mountaineer. That's because buying and training a new dog from scratch could have cost the town over $20,000. By contrast, Teco only had to brush up on some skills he'd lost during retirement (and get certified in the state of North Carolina), at a cost of around $1,200 to the town, Cimaszewski said. "He was on the street in two weeks," Cimaszewski said of the dog, who is certified in apprehensions and patrol as well as explosives. Cimaszewski reckons that given his mixed-breed heritage, Teco has four or five years of patrol work and odor detection left in him. That's good news from a taxpayer and a safety standpoint. As for Teco, he's back doing what he was born to do — and loving every minute.
Yahoo
07-05-2025
- Yahoo
Nazi graffiti spray-painted on road at J-Creek intersection
May 7—A swastika and double lightning-bolt symbol was spray-painted on the ground at a Jonathan Creek intersection overnight Wednesday, April 30, according to multiple reports from residents in the area. The appearance of the hate symbol — at the intersection of Hemphill and Grindstone roads — sparked concern among residents. One man who was out of town when it happened was alerted to it the next day as neighbors began calling each other, wondering what to do. "A neighbor down the street said, 'Hey, there's a swastika painted in the road,'" said the man who lives nearby but requested anonymity. He was alarmed to see it for himself upon returning to town. "It's mostly in red spray paint," the man, who has a background in law enforcement, told The Mountaineer. " What caught my mind, what caught my attention besides the swastika, was the double lightning bolts." The graffiti was removed Tuesday, May 6, by the N.C. Department of Transportation, according to DOT spokesperson David Uchiyama. Meanwhile, the Haywood County Sheriff's Office is investigating the incident. "We're taking it seriously and we are investigating it," said Haywood County Sheriff's Office Public Information Officer Gina Zachary. "We are looking into potential suspects and potential charges." Zachary said detectives are researching a range of potential criminal violations that might apply, from graffiti vandalism to even hate crime charges. The sheriff's office received a complaint from a neighbor about the graffiti on Thursday. The sheriff's office called back to get more information, but the neighbor missed the call. After receiving a follow-up inquiry from The Mountaineer on Monday, the sheriff's office officially opened an incident report and sent a deputy to go check it out — four days after the initial complaint was made. Zachary also said the Sheriff's Office has no indication that the graffiti was targeted specifically at anyone nearby. The Sheriff's Office also notified the N.C. Department of Transportation. NCDOT is listed as the "victim" on the incident report. The presence of bolts "are a common white supremacist/neo-Nazi symbol derived from Schutzstaffel (SS) of Nazi Germany," according to the Anti-Defamation League's hate symbol database. "The SS, led by Heinrich Himmler, maintained the police state of Nazi Germany. Its members ranged from agents of the Gestapo to soldiers of to guards at concentration and death camps."
