W.Va. man charged in fire, theft

By JEFFREY SIMMONS/Staff

Call it community policing.
It was Monday morning and an ATV was missing from a yard along Wolf Creek Road in Rocky Gap. Word about the theft spread among locals, and a woman parked across from Woody’s convenience store noticed a man speeding by on a Suzuki four-wheeler.
She got in her vehicle, followed the rider and called the Sheriff’s Office from her cell phone.
Earlier that same morning, dispatch had received another call about a truck fire at a cabin down Wolf Creek Road. Police would soon learn that the theft and the fire were related.
Responding to the call about the stolen ATV – the crime hadn’t yet been reported to police – Sgt. Lorin Hanshew headed toward Rocky Gap and down Clear Fork Creek Road where the woman in the van was relaying the ATV’s position until she lost cell phone service.
Hanshew met the woman coming back toward Rocky Gap and learned that she had stopped following the rider when he entered Tazewell County.
The Bland County Sheriff’s Office notified Tazewell County and Bluefield officers, and the search continued.
Eventually on Monday, the Bluefield Police Department stopped and arrested the ATV driver on Mountain Lane within the city limits.
More investigation revealed that the burned-out 2000 Ford-150 reported at approximately 8:18 a.m. on Monday had been stolen the same morning in Bluefield, W.Va. The ATV driver – 34-year-old Joseph Allen Hancock – has been charged in that crime as well, police said.
According to Hanshew, the Bluefield, W.Va., resident is facing five felonies and three misdemeanors in the truck fire, and ATV theft and chase.
He was charged with arson, possession of stolen property, felony destruction of property, obstruction of justice, grand larceny, misdemeanor destruction of property, driving on a suspended license and driving an ATV on the highway without a helmet.
Being held without bond in the New River Valley Regional Jail in Dublin, Hancock will likely be arraigned on the charges today in Bland County General District Court. That’s when he’ll either get a court-appointed attorney or hire one on his own.
Hanshew said Hancock apparently stolen the truck, drove across East River Mountain into Bland County, abandoned the truck, hotwired the ATV, drove it back to the truck and then set the truck on fire. The pickup was a total loss, according to the officer.
Jeffrey Simmons can be reached at 1-800-655-1406 or .