One digit sent four people to jail Monday morning.
That, and repeated phone calls to a Rowan County deputy’s cell phone.
Jagger Naves had been asleep until his phone began ringing that morning.
Calls came in at 3:51 a.m., then 4:02, 4:04 and 4:05.
On the fourth try, the caller left a voice mail.
“This isn’t even a $10 rock. You need to make this right!” the caller yelled into the phone, according to a Sheriff’s Office report.
The caller, who authorities later identified as Sandra Davis, of Statesville, said she and another person wanted to meet in a parking lot on U.S. 70 in Cleveland, the report said.
Naves was the wrong person to tell. He is a member of the Sheriff’s Office Aggressive Criminal Enforcement team.
Naves phoned Cleveland Police and let them know about the possible drug deal.
He then called the number back and said he was an officer and told the caller to stop calling.
Ten minutes later, he realized he wasn’t going to get any sleep.
The phone rang a fifth time, and despite the deputy’s earlier warning, the caller said she couldn’t meet at the parking lot because “police were everywhere,” the report said.
She asked if they could meet in a business parking lot on U.S. 801.
Naves obliged.
Davis and 50-year-old Henry Cloer, of Granite Falls, were found sitting in a green 1987 Chevy pickup with the lights off.
Naves said when he spoke to them, he immediately recognized the driver’s voice from the messages left on his phone that morning.
When he asked the two to step out of the truck, a plastic bag fell from Cloer’s pants. The bag contained about half a gram of crack cocaine, the report said. Authorities also found a metal smoking pipe in the truck.
The pair told officers they were waiting to meet two people in a white, four-door sedan.
Naves seized the pair’s cell phones for evidence. But one of the phones began ringing. The number that appeared on the phone’s display was one digit off from Naves’ personal cell number.
Naves met that caller and another person near Bear Poplar at U.S. 801. They were waiting in a white 1994 Oldsmobile Cutlass.
The deputy said he saw a small of bag of cocaine in the lap of the passenger, identified as 33-year-old Jermiere Walker, of Granite Quarry. He immediately took Walker into custody and placed the cocaine on the roof of the car, the report said.
As Naves dealt with Walker — who officers said was banging loudly against the glass in the patrol car — Pamela Henderson, who was driving the Cutlass, grabbed the plastic bag.
She pulled what appeared to be a second bag of cocaine from her bra and threw them both in the nearby tall grass, the report said.
Deputies brought in a K-9 unit to help search the roadside and vehicle. They found a small plastic bag containing three crack cocaine rocks.
Authorities charged Henderson and Walker with felony possession with intent to manufacture, sell and deliver cocaine and possession of drug paraphernalia.
Henderson, 38, was also charged with resisting, obstructing or delaying an officer and felony maintaining a vehicle for storing drugs.
Davis and Cloer were each charged with felony possession of cocaine and possession of drug paraphernalia.
Cloer and Walker remained in jail Tuesday afternoon on $11,500 and $10,000 bonds, respectively.
Davis and Henderson were released after posting bonds of $10,000 and $15,000.
Salisbury Post: Sorry, wrong number; drug deal dials up trouble
