A Wilkesboro man is jailed on a 10-thousand dollar bond, charged with abusing his son by burning his hand on a stove burner. When the 10-year old boy showed up at school about 2 weeks ago with his father, several teachers and students saw the severe burn. While the father, 26 year old Jairo Barquero, was telling school officials his son had burned himself picking up a hot skillet, the boy was telling friends his dad had burned him to teach him a lesson — apparently the boy had been burning matches.

When school officials asked the boy what had happened, he told them the same story his father had told…but he continued to tell friends the other story. At the school’s request, Mr. Barquero took his son to the hospital to have the hand checked out — but somehow, through all the people who looked at the injury, no photos are reported being taken of it except by the school nurse a day after the incident was reported to Wilkesboro Police.

A week ago yesterday, as police were following up on the case with Mr. Barquero, they learned social workers were talking to the boy at the school. When they met up with the social worker and talked with the boy, he originally stuck to the hot pan story, and demonstrated how he’d picked up the pan with both hands and burned himself. But when pressed whether he really believed the injury he had could have come from picking up a pan like that, the boy broke down and recanted that story, saying his father had held his hand on the burner until he’d suffered the burn.

A doctor in Winston-Salem looked at the photo taken three days after the incident happened, and determined that the core of the burner could be seen in the burn pattern, matching the boy’s descriptions to friends and police about what had happened. The doctor said there was no way a 10-year old would hold their hand on the burner long enough to receive that sort of burn, unless his hand was being held there by a person stronger than him. Police arrested Mr. Barquero yesterday on a charge of Felony Child Abuse with Serious Injury, and jailed him on a 10-thousand dollar bond. Police have closed their investigation with the arrest.

If they hadn’t acted suspiciously up on seeing a passing police officer, two North WIlkesboro residents might have gotten away with their apparent drug usage for another day. But when a person standing outside their car reacted in shock to seeing the officer pass by Myers Tire on Cherry Street, where they were in the parking lot, th officer’s suspicions were raised. The person standing outside the car turned and walked away toward Fuelex, and the driver and passenger in the car drove over there. Their path took them in front of the officer, which gave him a chance to call in their tag and find out it was expired. When they came out of the store and climbed int eh car, the officer pulled up behind them and began questioning them, learning that the inspection sticker was expired as well. The driver Jonathan Sheets, told the officer he was acting nervously because of previous problems with the law, and that there was likely some drug paraphernalia in the car. It turned out there was, and Sheets and his passenger, Logan Sheets, were arrested on citations for drug and paraphernalia possession. A third person in the car was released after a search of that person and the area they were sitting in turned up no evidence of a crime.

Once again, a local business owner reports someone foisted off a fake 20-dollar bill on them. Wilkesboro police were called to State Farm INsurance on Highland Street Friday. Deanna Williams told an officer that someone had passed a fake 20 while paying their bill sometime that day. The register had no 20′s in it when the business opened Friday. Police asked for a list of the people who stopped by to pay their bill that day, and have been contacting each one. Two particular payments were identified by the business as being more suspicious than the others. Police are continuing their investigation.