MARIJUANA MISHAP MARS CHATHAM SHERIFF'S CREDIBILITY

PITTSBORO -- Chef Doug Lorie cooks up black bean burritos and other
vegetarian fare at the General Store Cafe, where dozens of Chatham County
residents -- from county commissioners to construction workers -- gather
daily for lunch and gossip.

Lorie, who sports a safari-style tan hat, has heard months of rumors about
a local marijuana bust gone awry: Nearly 5,000 pounds of the drug were
stolen from the sheriff's department's custody last year.

"It's material for a stand-up comedian. It's one of those tabloid stories
that gets everyone's attention," said Lorie, a Chapel Hill-reared man who
has lived in Chatham since the mid-1970s. "I wouldn't be surprised if Jay
Leno gets a hold of this. Jay Leno should get a hold of this."

With emotions ranging from amusement to disgust, residents are still
talking about a tale that has become infamous in the Triangle.

In an undercover sting Feb. 8, 2000, a Chatham County narcotics team seized
4,840 pounds of marijuana from a barn three miles southwest of Siler City.
Deputies stored the bundles in a 2.5-ton Army surplus truck -- the only
place big enough to hold the evidence, Sheriff Ike Gray said.

On Sept. 28, more than seven months after confiscating the $5 million stash
of marijuana, deputies noticed three-fifths of it had been stolen through a
mesh window. Later that day, deputies buried the remaining marijuana at the
old county landfill. Weeks later, officials noticed the buried marijuana
also had been stolen.

The FBI, which has been investigating the thefts since December, is
offering a $40,000 reward for information leading to the culprits' arrest.

"Oh, $40,000," said Linda Timmons, an office manager, who talked about the
case while eating chicken salad at the Scoreboard Grill, a sports bar in
downtown Pittsboro. "I wish I had some inside information.

"I think it is a bad reflection on the county," she added. "But if I had to
call the Chatham County law enforcement for anything, I would do it. I have
in the past, and they responded quickly and effectively."

Pittsboro native James Taylor, a technician at Cooper Ford, talks with
people coming in and out of the shop all day. He has a different opinion.

"I don't think anybody around here trusts them now," he said. "Somebody in
that sheriff's department knows what happened to it."

Gray said he has done everything he can to cooperate with the FBI
investigation. He volunteered to take a lie-detector test, and agents are
interviewing his deputies.

Jamie Workman, who holds jobs in construction and car detailing, barely
suppresses a grin upon hearing the words "missing marijuana." He thinks
about the reaction of his co-workers in Durham.

"They say it's pitiful," Workman said. "But, hey, it's Chatham County."

Northwood High School student Ian Caffey describes many cafeteria
lunch-line conversations that ended in laughter and disbelief.

"Oh, it's a bad reputation, but it's [the sheriff's department's] problem,"
said Ian, 15, taking a break from his work at the Moncure museum of art site.

A bad reputation is something Chatham has worried about before. Last year,
an anti-immigration rally in Siler City featured former Klansman David Duke
as the guest speaker. And in February, federal investigators decided to
visit the county school system a second time to investigate racial
discrimination complaints after a former high school principal was heard on
cassette tape using a racial epithet to describe students.

Perhaps it's his past military service that stresses order, but Bear Creek
resident and Siler City businessman Herbert Gaines is befuddled by what he
sees as flaws in the system. Why weren't the drugs burned? he wonders. And
when is this investigation going to uncover something?

"There seems to have been a real lack of control over evidence," said
Gaines, a farm credit office manager.

"They're supposed to be so alert and everything," said Taylor, the
technician at Cooper Ford. "How can they let so much marijuana get away
from them?"