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BUCKHANNON -- An Upshur County man faces a felony charge after allegedly breaking into an apartment, sleeping on the couch and stealing a wristwatch worth more than $200.
Cody Rain Hinkle, 33, is charged with one count of burglary, a felony. He is currently being held at the Central Regional Jail on a $10,000 cash-only bond.
According to the criminal complaint filed by Deputy R.T. Lamb with the Upshur County Sheriff’s Office, on June 23, the Upshur County Communications Center received a 911 call from an Upshur County resident reporting the front door to her neighbor’s apartment was open and a dog inside the residence was barking. The caller told Communications that this was unusual because the neighbor worked night shifts out of town.
Lamb responded to the scene, and upon arrival, he observed a male subject asleep on the couch in the living room, the complaint states. The male subject was identified as Hinkle. When Lamb asked why he was inside the apartment, Hinkle allegedly said he was staying there as it belonged to a relative’s friend who was away at work, and that he had permission to be there. Hinkle was unable to contact the tenant of the apartment to confirm his claim.
Lamb then contacted the tenant, who is the alleged victim in this case, himself, the complaint states. The alleged victim advised that Hinkle was her ex-boyfriend’s brother and she wanted him removed as she said she had not given him permission to enter or remain in the apartment while she was away. The alleged victim provided Lamb with a text exchange between her and Hinkle where she told him he wasn’t allowed to stay in her apartment and the door was locked. Lamb directed Hinkle to leave and he left without incident.
While at the scene, Lamb reportedly observed that the front window air-conditioning unit had been tampered with, the complaint states. The cardboard filler panel on the right side of the unit had been removed and the plastic casing surrounding the unit had been forced open. Lamb writes that the opening from the tampering was large enough for a person to enter into the apartment.
On June 25, the alleged victim contacted Lamb and reported that a watch belonging to her current boyfriend has been stolen from the apartment, the complaint states. The watch was valued at approximately $263.20. The alleged victim told Lamb that the watch was last seen on a bedroom dresser beside the window that Hinkle had allegedly used to enter the apartment two days before.
According to the complaint, Lamb reviewed his body-worn camera footage from the June 23 incident and allegedly observed that Hinkle had been wearing a wristwatch identical to the one the alleged victim described.
A preliminary hearing for Hinkle has been scheduled for Sept. 16 in Upshur County Magistrate Court.