They said it would happen; they printed the dates and times in the newspaper, and yet the checkpoints held by the Clinton Police Department over the Memorial Day weekend still turned up a surprising amount of offenders — 116 to be exact.

“We were really pleased with the results,” said Lt. Tim King Tuesday morning. “We had a lot of good compliments and we were able to get a good number of violators.

Friday night was the biggest net from the checkpoints. Held on N.C. Highway 24 (just past Coharie Country Club), King noted that in a little over two and half hours four people were arrested on drunk driving charges; 43 with no operators licenses; 12 for driving with a revoked license; three for no child restraints; 21 with fictitious tags/no insurance; 11 inspection violations; four speeders and seven with open containers.

Two subjects were arrested after their names showed up on N.C. Aware noting outstanding warrants against them.

And, most of the vehicles that were stopped, also got a visit from canine officer Sarge, who sniffed for drugs.

“Any time you can get drunk drivers and other violators off the road, it is a good day,” King said.

Highway Patrol

Conducting their annual Click It or Ticket Campaign, the N.C. Highway Patrol racked up a whopping 462 charges during the campaign that ran from May 23 through Monday evening.

According to N.C. Highway Patrol First Sgt. Ricky Hooks, troopers held nine checkpoints and had 58 random patrols during the time period.

Hooks noted that there were 123 seatbelt violations, 10 child restraints and 12 DWI arrests during the campaign. There were 329 total traffic violations in Sampson County.