August 7th, 2020
I was having lunch with a friend today when my daughter called me saying there was someone (a man) parked out front of our house, on the road, taking pictures. She said, he first was out front of Norman’s (150 Riverside), then went past our house like he was leaving and stopped at the abandoned house (130 Riverside), then came back got out of his vehicle and started taking pictures (from the road) of our house, backyard and the road in front of our house, from different angles from different spots in the road.
I told my daughter I was just finishing my lunch and I’d be there in a few minutes. I kept her on the phone and she said he was still there. As I pulled onto my road he was driving my way, I put my hand out to get his attention and pulled up along side of him in front of the abandoned house. He stopped, and I told him that my daughter had called me saying he was taking pictures of my house and I’d like to know why. He said that there was a complaint made and that he was just following up on that complaint. I asked who made the complaint and what was it about? and he said he was not at liberty to say. But did say there were “no worries”, I looked at him kind of puzzled and he said again there were “no worries”. As I went to drive off, he yelled “ma’am” and he backed up to me and showed me his badge and said I just wanted to show you my badge so you wouldn’t think I was a weirdo. He never did tell me who he was, I recongized him from being with the Sheriff’s Dept., but didn’t know his name. He left and I went to check on my daughter.
After checking on my daughter, I left to complete my errands I was going to do after eating lunch. As I drove down Dobyns Rd towards Rt 8, I saw this man sitting in his car in the pull-off on Dobyns Rd., he was on his phone and was smoking a cigarette. I was gone for maybe 15 minutes and when I was driving back, this man was still sitting in the same spot on Dobyns Rd. still on the phone and smoking a cigarette.
Something wasn’t sitting well with me, so when I got home, I did a little research and found out that his name was Investigator Steve Austin. I decided to go to the Sheriff’s Dept. to see if I could find out what was going on. When I arrived, I was getting out of my truck to walk across the parking lot, and Mr. Austin pulled in, saw me and kept on driving to the other end of the parking lot. I walked inside and went to the window on the right. I asked the clerk/receptionist if I could speak to Sheriff Smith and she said that he was tied up and would be tied up for the rest of the day (it was about 3pm). She said I could leave my name and number and he would call me. I left that info including my address, and told her that he was more than welcome to call or stop by my house. She asked me what it was pertaining to and I told her, I wanted to know why one of his Investigators was taking pictures of my house and property.
Donna Marshall