Stolen buffalo skull returned to decor store
A stolen water buffalo skull was returned to its place in a Devine Street home decor store Wednesday.
But the recovery isn’t a product of police investigation. Rather, the skull was left at a local fire station with an apology note, according to The State.
The $2,800 carved skull was stolen from the Bohemian Home Decor store Tuesday afternoon by a man and a woman who, according to police, walked into the store, grabbed the skull and walked out. The next morning, a firefighter at a nearby station found it with the note attached.
Though police are still searching for the suspects, the manager of the store, Denise Cellier, told The State she would rather not press charges.
“I never ever expected to get it back,” Cellier told The State. “It was a pleasant surprise.”
—Sydney Patterson, Managing Editor
House Speaker Harrell to be investigated
The South Carolina Attorney General’s Office has asked the State Law Enforcement Division (SLED) to investigate whether House Speaker Bobby Harrell violated state ethics laws.
The office requested that SLED follow up on information given to them by Ashley Landess, president of the South Carolina Policy Council, The State reported.
The allegations say Harrell used his office “for his own financial benefit,” used campaign funds for personal purposes, appointed his brother to the Judicial Merit Selection Commission, failed to document his expenditures and did not adequately outline reimbursements to himself from his campaign account.
Harrell called the allegations a “smear campaign” and a “baseless attack” driven by a “personal and political vendetta,” The State reported.
Usually this kind of complaint would go through the House Ethics Committee, but the committee’s chairman, Kenny Bingham, told The State that Landess did not file the complaint with the committee because she was concerned about its objectivity, since the committee is made up of employees over whom Harrell is in charge.
——Sydney Patterson, Managing Editor
60-year-old arrested in connection with robbery
A 60-year-old Columbia man was arrested yesterday in connection with the armed robbery of a downtown bank that occurred Wednesday.
Lawrence Graham Jordan is charged with armed robbery and entering a bank with intent to steal, according to a release from the Columbia Police Department. He was arrested Thursday after a brief foot chase by police.
Jordan is accused of robbing the Palmetto Citizens Federal Credit Union on Washington Street around 3 p.m. Wednesday, according to the report.
Investigators say witnesses told them that Jordan entered the bank, demanded money and made verbal threats. He allegedly stole an undisclosed amount of money, the report said.
No one was physically harmed during the incident.
After his arrest, Jordan was transported to the Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center.
—Sarah Ellis, Assistant News Editor