Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Tuesday, July 26, 1994                 TAG: 9407260318
SECTION: LOCAL                    PAGE: B1   EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA 
SOURCE: BY MARGARET TALEV, STAFF WRITER 
DATELINE: KITTY HAWK                         LENGTH: Medium:   55 lines

GANG STEALS WAL-MART RECEIPTS, MANAGER SAYS THIEVES DISTRACTED EMPLOYEES WHILE LOOTING THE OFFICE.

   A band of thieves was still at-large Monday evening, after stealing an 
undisclosed sum of money during shopping hours from the Wal-Mart store Friday 
night.
   The theft touched off widespread reports that an armed gang had gotten away
with as much as $100,000, but store officials and police scoffed at those 
rumors, which circulated up and down the Outer Banks.
   John Birch, manager of the Kitty Hawk Wal-Mart, declined to discuss in 
detail the incident, citing company policy, but he did say that:
   A group of five or six men and women came into the store and some of them 
stole cash and checks from the office between 9:05 and 9:10 p.m. Friday.
   They gained access to controlled areas of the store, where signs said entry
was restricted to authorized personnel.
   No Wal-Mart employees witnessed the theft.
   No Wal-Mart employees were threatened or harmed.
   No injuries were reported. 
   Another store employee confirmed reports that some of the suspects created 
an attention-getting disturbance while the others went for the money.
   Kitty Hawk police officers would not release information contained in the 
investigative report. One officer said Chief Robert Morris had ``given us 
strict orders'' not to disclose any information about the case. Morris was on 
vacation Monday.
   Dennis Honeycutt, the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation agent 
sent from Greenville to investigate the robbery, was also out of the office 
Monday,  according to Agent Malcolm McLeod.  
   McLeod said the bureau was notified of the robbery at 10 p.m. Friday, and 
Honeycutt was sent to the scene to dust for fingerprints and take 
photographs.
   Officials declined to disclose the amount of money stolen. ``I heard that 
it was a substantial amount,'' McLeod said.
   Birch denied that $100,000 had been stolen, but would say only that the 
actual figure was significantly less.
   Birch denied other rumors that the robbers had been either all Gypsy women 
or Jamaican men, and that the robbers had threatened and then gagged a clerk 
in the layaway room.
   Birch and a Kmart employee said Monday that the same band of robbers had 
plotted a robbery of the Kill Devil Hills Kmart earlier Friday  night, but 
changed plans.
   Bill Holland, manager of that Kmart, said that was ``all speculation.''
   Police said the investigation is continuing.