Hey engineer! Let's be careful out there!

[Force Commander]

From 'The Huntsville Times'

Thursday, August 30, 2007From staff reports

Vandals fired shots at a technician for Lite 96.9 FM early Wednesday when he approached the station's transmitter in the Morgan County community of Union Hill for repair, a station official said.

John Malone, vice president of programming for the station, said the technician drove to the transmitting station atop Brindley Mountain after the station went off the air around 3 a.m.

The technician discovered the vandals used a crowbar to enter the station, then damaged the transmitter, causing the station to go off the air until about 7:30 a.m., Malone said.

The two vandals fired shots at the technician as he approached the building, Malone said. He was unhurt.

While escaping in their getaway van, the vandals rammed the technician's car. The van was deserted near the area, Malone said.



Deputies make meth bust while chasing radio station vandals
Posted by Niki Doyle August 30, 2007 1:37 PM

Deputies from the Morgan County Sheriff's Office stumbled on an active methamphetamine lab Wednesday in the pursuit of two men who burglarized a WRSA-FM Lite 96.9 transmitter.

One of the burglars has been identified as Scott Wayne Crook, 29. Both men are still at large.
Crook is a white man with hazel eyes and blond hair, 5-foot-7 and weighing 165 pounds.

Crook and his accomplice allegedly tried to steal copper from a Lite 96.9 radio transmitter early Wednesday, knocking the station off the air at about 4:45 a.m., said John Malone, vice president of programming for the station.

When the station's technician, Tommy Macpherson, and his daughter arrived at the Brindley Mountain transmitter, the two burglars fled, said Morgan County Sheriff Greg Bartlett.

Macpherson followed the men in their green van and called 911 while the two men fired shots at him, said Bartlett.

When the van reached the dead end of Telephone Tower Road, it turned around and rammed Macpherson's vehicle, and the men fired several more shots at Macpherson, Bartlett said.

Deputies responding to the call spotted the green van on nearby Apple Grove Road in Lacey's Spring. The burglars fled again, throwing pieces of metal conduit at the patrol cars, said Bartlett.
Deputies chased the van into a cornfield on Pleasant Valley Road, where the two men abandoned the van and ran into the woods.

Bartlett said investigators connected the van to the home of Crook and Candy Michelle Flippo of 17 Telephone Tower Road. When they searched the home, they found an active methamphetamine lab and unspecified stolen property.

Deputies arrested Flippo, 29, and Joyce Edwinnia Bradley, 53, and Tracy Michelle Bradley, 32, both of Huntsville, and charged them with loitering in a drug house. Other charges are pending, said Bartlett.

Crook is wanted for attempted murder and first-degree robbery. Anyone who has seen Crook or his accomplice should contact the Morgan County Sheriff's Office at 256- 301-1174 or Investigator Terry Kelly at 256-560-6196.

Hard to believe these bozos didn't get killed screwing around with a transmitter.