The holidays lost their glitter as Sharon and Bradley Eagle drove up to their home at 2900 Mount Hope Church Road about 8:30 p.m. Wednesday and found the place full of emergency vehicles.
Their son, 20-year-old John Eagle, told them he dialed 911 with his nose after three men with guns tied him up and turned a couch on top of him.
Sharon and Bradley Eagle had gone with their 15-year-old son to see their sister-in-law in the hospital. John Eagle had been at Wal- Mart.
He told sheriff’s deputies that when he got home three men came up behind him in the garage, forcing him to open the door and cut off the alarm. She said they asked John Eagle if he was alone, and he said, “My Mom and Dad will be here before long.” He said the men left soon after that.
He said he tried to wrestle free but they tied his hands and ankles, blindfolded him, stuffed a sock in his mouth and threw a couch on top of him.
Sharon Eagle said her son heard the men looking through drawers and asking about money and jewelry. They took some checkbooks.
According to John Eagle’s account, he squirmed and pushed the couch off himself, slid along the floor to a phone on the wall, then knocked the phone off the hook and dialed 911 with his nose. Rowan County Communications reported the call came in about 7:20 p.m.
By the time the rest of the family got home, sheriff’s deputies, including a trained dog, had arrived and were investigating.
This is the second time the Eagles have been robbed. “The same thing happened at this same time last year,” Sharon Eagle said. “Only that time we were in the mountains, and they really messed up the house and took television sets and things. We kind of think these are the same people this time, only we came home.”
She said they hadn’t learned anything more about the investigation, and the Sheriff’s Department had no further information to report this morning.
The family went ahead with their Thanksgiving plans, Sharon Eagle said.
She said John was a little bruised and was staying close to them because he was still feeling shaken up. Today he and his father made a trip to the bank to take care of voiding the stolen checks, she said.
“But we went ahead and had our Thanksgiving dinner, because all though it was sort of dimmed in a way, in another way we had a lot to be thankful for. It could have been a lot worse. John could have been killed,” she said.
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