Long Neck crime: Long on woes, short on fixes

The recent closure of a Long Neck restaurant repeatedly victimized by crime might be the catalyst the community needed to face its crime problem.

The doors of the Long Neck Kick n' Chicken closed for good April 21 after years of being victimized by crimes including burglary, robbery and vandalism, said owner Charlie Pollard.

Following the closure, an ad hoc citizens group organized April 24 to demand greater police presence in the area. They feel they have fallen through the cracks and that authorities are unaware or don't care about a growing violent crime problem, said Glenn Schuster, an organizer of the group, which operates the longneckstrong.com website.

The Long Neck Strong group attended a public meeting at the Indian River Fire House on Monday to voice their concerns to Sens. Gerald Hocker and Brian Pettyjohn and Rep. Ruth Briggs-King. Nearby parking lots were filled, and others parked on the street. It was standing room only.

The meeting involved much discussion but no real answers. Many attendees walked out in frustration after Pettyjohn, Briggs-King and the police left after 7 p.m. to attend the vigil for Cpl. Stephen J. Ballard in Georgetown. Hocker said the troopers’ place was to be at that vigil along with Briggs-King and Pettyjohn, and that he would stay to continue the meeting, which was met with some applause, but it did not stop others from leaving.

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Pollard, a longtime area youth sports coach and youth mentor, said the closure was necessary to protect the safety of his employees. He had no idea that act would stir "a hornet's nest" leading to community action.

He opened the Long Neck store six years ago, and has since opened a location in Lewes that remains open.

But the problems in Long Neck began almost as soon as he opened there.

"About three weeks after we opened, we were broken into," Pollard said.

It was an isolated incident, but several years later he fired an employee who threatened to "get even." The store was repeatedly vandalized and broken into for months.

He said police didn't take action until he called Rep. Steve Smyk. The pattern stopped for a while after the ex-employee was questioned by police, but there wasn't enough evidence to hold him, he said.

Then the crimes resumed as tip jars were stolen while the store was open. The store was broken into on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day last year, and money was stolen from a locked safe, Pollard said.

It was broken into again on April 20. A flatscreen TV was stolen and a microwave oven was damaged. The next day it was broken into again.

"Then I called my landlord to let him know I was done," Pollard said. "I'm tired of being the victim and nobody (in authority) cares."

Pollard regrets having to close, but he said it was the right thing to do.

"It's easy to point blame at other people, easy to say it's because of the (heroin epidemic)," he said. "But people have been reaching out for help in Long Neck in the past and received what they think is not enough. They want answers and they're not happy. I am touched by their actions. I feel like I was a catalyst in some way."

"The red-headed stepchild"

Schuster said all of the communities in this unincorporated area are being impacted by a growing violent crime problem. In just the last three months, Dollar General, Walgreens and Dunkin' Donuts have been robbed at gunpoint, and drug activity has been reported in the parking lot of Wawa, he said.

"Long Neck is gentle, it's small, it's a gateway to Rehoboth, Lewes and Route 1, there's a lot of tourist traffic," Schuster said. "There's a lot of permanent development here, it's a nice area."

But police don't regularly patrol the area, Schuster said. He doesn't fault the Millsboro and Lewes police, who are nearby. It's not their jurisdiction. But it's a local problem and not one that the Delaware State Police should have to deal with either, he said.

"It's like we're the red-headed stepchild," he said. "Long Neck Road has gotten the nickname 'Crime Alley.' This has been going on for quite some time. It's reached the point where people have said we've got to take this into our own hands."

Delaware State Police confirmed that Kick n' Chicken was burglarized twice in April and that Dollar General was robbed at gunpoint April 18, and Walgreens on April 23, said spokesman Master Cpl. Gary Fournier. He said there is no way of knowing at this time if the perpetrators were heroin users. All three incidents remain under investigation.

"We need to reallocate some resources"

At the May 1 town hall, representatives of the Delaware State Police were present but were unprepared to talk about commercial burglaries and armed robberies, instead encouraging the formation of neighborhood watches. Troopers insisted that residents had to be the eyes and ears for the police, who are spread too thinly across the county.

Briggs-King linked the crime rise to the county heroin epidemic, and was criticized for her sponsorship of the Connections Methadone clinic near Millsboro, which some of the attendees claimed is responsible for the crime wave. But that was met with criticism from others in the audience.

Briggs-King compared the Long Neck drug problem to that in Wilmington, Dover, Seaford and Georgetown, all larger incorporated areas with their own law enforcement. She said that the county is responsible for finding the funding to increase state police presence in the area because the county council decided "years ago" to not have a separate county police force.

She said that incorporation might solve the enforcement issues but would cost millions of dollars, something that attendees already knew.

"What expenses will you cut, or where will you come up with the money?" Briggs-King asked.

The problem has been a long time coming, Hocker said. He said he tried to give the area a state police substation 14 years ago, paid for by Joshua Freeman, but it was killed by former Gov. Ruth Ann Minner.

The discussion bogged down at several points when it became clear that some attendees didn't understand how state police funding works, how troopers are distributed, why the Millsboro Police won't patrol Long Neck or even the difference between "robbery" and "burglary."

"Sussex County pays the state of Delaware for additional police protection," Pettyjohn said. "We need to reallocate some resources."

But despite warnings about expenses, clarification of funding issues and criticism from the increasingly frustrated audience, nothing much was decided.

A question raised repeatedly by the attendees at the May 1 meeting was why the Millsboro Police can't patrol Long Neck.

"Our primary concern is always going to be the safety of the Town of Millsboro within the incorporated limits and the taxpayers who pay our salaries," said Cpl. David Moyer, spokesman for the Millsboro Police Department.

He said the department is aware of the Long Neck problem, but they can't by law patrol the unincorporated Long Neck area. They can only respond to state police requests for support there.

"A lot of citizens think the Millsboro Police Department handles any place within the 19966 zip code, but unfortunately it's not true. Our jurisdiction is very limited," he said.

"Very disappointing"

The town hall meeting continued until nearly 8:30 p.m. with only Hocker and an assistant for Briggs-King remaining to handle the increasingly unruly crowd, which fired question after question out of order. Hocker said the issue would be rescheduled for a later town meeting at which Troop 4 Capt. Rodney Layfield would be present.

Schuster was one of the ones who walked out.

"It was a waste of time, it's very disappointing," he said. "No one was willing to take this back to the House or Senate. It's very disappointing when elected officials only offer statistics and everybody leaves en masse. We had 500 people show up, and all they got was scare tactics to discourage them on the incorporation issue."

Discussion turned to debate between Hocker and Pollard.

Pollard, who claimed some political experience, responded to Hocker's reiteration of the Freeman-funded substation killed by Minner. He said what Long Neck residents need aren't empty platitudes.

"I'm sorry, but I am not interested in that at all," Pollard said. "I do not need a lesson in history. We need your help."

On Tuesday morning, Delaware State Police announced two robberies from Monday night in Long Neck and the Angola area on John J. Williams Highway.

MORE: 2 more robberies in Long Neck area

dferrar@delmarvanow.com