A man visiting his family’s farm was arrested after employees at the Faison-area establishment noticed he was towing a trailer stolen from the farm and, during an attempted getaway in the truck, detained him, according to authorities.
William Field Burch, 27, of 522 Raleigh St., Newton Grove, was charged with three counts of assault with a deadly weapon. He was arrested by Sampson County Sheriff’s authorities at the 600 block of Burch Road, Faison, and subsequently placed under $18,000 secured bond.
Deputies responded a larceny call at Burch Farms late Friday and, when they got there, found that the larceny actually occurred in Wayne County, Cpl. Marcus Smith said. Burch Farm owners said a trailer had been taken from one of the diesel trucks at that location.
Burch reportedly arrived at the Faison farm location Friday afternoon and was making a phone call when employees noticed the trailer he was pulling was the one previously reported stolen from Wayne, Smith said. The employees attempted to unhitch the trailer from the truck when Burch noticed.
“When employees started going to unhook the trailer, he tried to leave with the trailer still attached,” said Smith. “He almost ran over three guys.”
There were no injuries in the incident, however the misdemeanor assault charges were leveled based on alleged intent, Smith said. Burch was still in jail as of Tuesday afternoon.
According to the N.C. Department of Corrections, Burch has convictions out of Duplin, Sampson and Wayne counties, including communicating threats, reckless driving and assault with a deadly weapon. The most recent was the assault conviction, stemming from an incident in 2009.
Chris Berendt can be reached at 910-592-8137 ext. 121 or via email at cberendt@civitasmedia.com.
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