• Spivey hid parts in Christmas boxes, report says.
The former chief of Chadbourn police has been charged with stealing two catalytic converters from a Tabor City garage.
William Anthony Spivey, 36, of Gapway Road, Fair Bluff, was arrested on a warrant drawn by C.G. Hilburn of the Tabor City Police. Spivey was charged with theft by employee and given a secured bond.
Spivey was working for M and M Auto Repair in Tabor City when the theft occurred, according to a TCPD report. Jennifer Manes told Lt. R. Mulbow that Spivey was given a job at the shop during the Christmas holidays. On Dec. 23, the report said, Spivey asked for two boxes to use for Christmas gifts.
Later on, the owner of the business could not find the converters. Security cameras recorded Spivey taking the converters, valued at $900, out of the boxes, and concealing them in another box. He then allegedly put them in his vehicle and left, the report said.
Spivey was given several chances to return the converters before the warrant was sought, the report said.
Spivey still faces charges of destroying evidence, embezzlement by a public official, trafficking opiates by possession, prescription fraud, and other felonies. The State Bureau of Investigation said that over an extended period of time, Spivey took $32,000 in cash, narcotics and firearms from the Chadbourn police evidence locker. He sold the guns and used the cash to buy drugs.
The scheme began falling apart when the district attorney’s office had to dismiss cases due to evidence not being available at trial.
After he was arrested, Spivey was charged with obtaining property by false pretenses after he allegedly kept money from a fundraiser held for a child cancer victim. The money was found missing after the child’s death.
