One Van Found, Another Van Donated

Betsy, the 18-year-old van that the Cherokee Humane Society uses to transport animals around the county, has been found.

The van wasfrom the Humane Society Thrift Store parking lot.

"It's in our impound lot," said Statesville, N.C., Police Capt. Bryan Johnson. "We contacted them to make arrangements to come pick it up."

According to Johnson, Betsy was just one of three stolen vehicles linked to William Jewell, 24, of Franklin, N.C.

His suspected thievery began to unravel on Thursday when an employee at K&W Restaurant reported that her 1981 Ford truck was gone.

She told authorities that she remembered seeing "a white van with fish and cats and Humane Society" behind the business, Johnson said.

That same night, a van matching that description was spotted at another location, abandoned.

"It was not damaged," he said. "They had just run out of gas."

This is what police believed happened:

With his girlfriend in tow, Jewell got out of the van at the restaurant and stole the Ford truck. The woman, identified as 20-year-old Andrea Paige Bonnell, took the wheel of the van -- until it ran out of gas. At some point, the couple argued, Bonnell ditched Jewell and returned to her Statesville, N.C., home. It was near that residence that authorities found the 1981 Ford. Bonnell was arrested. Johnson declined to say what led authorities to her home.

"That's part of the investigation we have to save for court," he said.

Law enforcement caught up with Jewell on Friday in Macon County, N.C. -- in another stolen vehicle.

"The victim reported that vehicle stolen a street over from Andrea's home," Johnson said.

Statesville Police charged the pair with larceny of a motor vehicle, then tacked on a possession of a stolen vehicle charge against Jewell for the Humane Society's van.

"We had evidence that he was in possession of (the van) here in Statesville," Johnson said.

For the third vehicle, Jewell faces an additional larceny of a motor vehicle charge from the Iredell County, N.C., Sheriff's Office.

Still, had Betsy not been found, the Humane Society would have still been taken care of, thanks to one Acworth woman.

After a series of tragic events—the death of her brother and a friend’s failed business—left Patty Yockers with a van sitting in her front yard, she decided to turn that luck around and donate a 2004 Ford Econoline van to the shelter once she saw that theirs had been stolen.

Yockers said her brother left her enough money to live without need and a friend left the van in her yard in August when his business failed.

After hearing that the shelter needed a new van, she spoke with her son about possibly donating the van.

“We talked about how his uncle loved rescuing dogs and we know they’re a very underfunded group,” Yockers said. “We went down there Sunday and told them what we were doing, and almost all of the people working there were in tears.”

Ottis Moore, director of the Cherokee Humane Society, said several people had offered to donate vehicles.

“We are grateful, honored, pleased, delighted," Moore said. "That’s really a generous act. It’s about 12 years newer.”

 While they will still try to bring Betsy home, the new van will provide better and safer driving conditions for Humane Society workers.

 The newly donated van has almost 100,000 fewer miles, working doors, air conditioning and a radio, Yockers said.