Holiday heartache for
one NC family

AHOSKIE, NC. - Single father Tommie Cooper worked for months to give his two sons, one with sickle cell anemia and the other with Autism, the Christmas he believed in his heart they deserved.

TJ and Kevon have done very well in school and were both recognized for their excellent grades and citizenship.

"They opened their presents and played with everything they got because they got every thing that they wanted." Said Cooper, but in one hour and forty five minutes, every thing was stolen while the family left for a short visit with Cooper's mother.

Cooper said when the family returned to his home on Alton Street he noticed the cushions on his living room couch had been rearranged, but it wasn't until he looked in the other rooms that the awful truth hit him.

"As soon as I looked to my bedroom, to the kids room...they have an oak bunk bed that was flipped to the middle of the floor and I knew someone had been in my house."

Cooper says he has no idea who would do this to him and to his children but says whoever ransacked his home seemed to know when he was gone, entered by breaking his sons' bedroom window and once inside knew exactly where to go to find the most valuables.

He says a key box that looks like a mail holder was opened and his motorcycle and safe keys were removed. The childrens' game systems, toys and even presents that weren't open yet were taken from under the tree. Cooper lost a computer, cell phone, a ring and thousands of dollars his nephew had just wired so Cooper could buy him a motorcycle. Cooper says his nephew is in the Marine Corps and wanted his uncle to have a motorcycle ready for him when he returned from Iraq.

One neighbor, Maggie Benson, says her dog started barking but didn't see anything when she looked outside.

"I looked all around and I didn't see a thing because I always watch out for Tommie's house, but I didn't see a thing but my dog was doing so badly I thought she would disturb the whole neighborhood so I brought her in."

Benson added that she sleeps with pepper spray in her room. Cooper has taken to going room to room with a hammer every time he comes home.

"I feel so much like they're coming back."

Cooper has a right to be nervous. On December 26th, one day after the alleged break in, a strange man entered his home claiming to be looking for kerosene. This time he and his boys were home.

"And I said what are you doing in my house, what are you doing in my house ... I just got robbed. What are you doing here?"

Cooper says he fought with the man until he went into diabetic shock and was taken to the hospital. Police say they have arrested and charged Tavalis Jerome Lee with felonious breaking and entering and more charges may follow. Right now officers do not believe he is the same person who broke into the home on December 25th.

Anyone with information is asked to call the Ahoskie Police department at 252 - 332- 5011.