Three airmen charged with breaking into surplus store

NEWPORT NEWS

Three active-duty airmen at Langley Air Force Base were arrested Thursday on allegations that they broke into a military surplus store, Newport News police said.

The store's owner was sleeping inside and caught three men about 3:05 a.m., holding one of them at gunpoint until police officers arrived, police said.

"I feel very lucky and fortunate that everything went my way," said Jeffrey Thompson, the owner of CQB Military Surplus, 14350 Warwick Blvd.

Police arrested Scotty Harold Light, John Jacob Solecki and Timothy Michael Wiggins. All three are 20.

Light and Solecki, who live on base in Hampton, were charged with burglary, attempted grand larceny and conspiracy to commit burglary.

Wiggins, of the 900 block of Marcus Drive, was charged with burglary and conspiracy to commit burglary.

All three men are assigned to security forces at Langley, police said.

Thompson said he decided to spend several nights inside his store in response to a break-in attempt on Sunday night.

Someone cut power lines to his store and tried to pry open a back door, he said. The alarm went off and police arrived to find no one there. "I suspected that they were going to come back," Thompson said.

He slept in his store Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday nights. Early Thursday the sound of breaking glass woke him from deep sleep.

He put on his glasses, picked up his gun and stood. A man wearing a black mask was 20 feet away, illuminated by outside streetlights.

Thompson said he pointed his gun at the burglar and told him to get on the ground. The man complied.

He then found another masked burglar crouching behind a counter, and told him to get on the ground. He also complied. But when Thompson went to find his phone, the second man ran out the back door and escaped.

Thompson called 911 and kept his gun pointed at the man on the floor.

"He knew he had a gun pointed at his head," Thompson said. "He wasn't trying to fight."

Newport News police arrived and arrested Light at the store, a police statement said. Solecki and Wiggins were taken into custody at Wiggins' house.

The suspects are being held in the Newport News jail.

"I guess I feel justified for spending the time at my shop sleeping," Thompson said. "There's been a lot of negativism about firearms.... I'm very much a proponent of letting honest citizens carry firearms to protect themselves from criminals. I'm not a member of the NRA or anything like that; I just feel that in this day and age there's a lot of bad folks out there."

Patrick Wilson, (757) 446-2957, patrick.wilson@pilotonline.com