Boot’s Night Out: Marines Dine and Dash at Waffle House, Trash Display Aircraft at Local Park
According to local police, two Marines are accused of skipping out on paying at a local Waffle House then climbing all over aircraft on display in a local park in Havelock, NC, causing over $1,000 in damage. Havelock is home to Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point. Photo from Havelock Police Department, illustration by Coffee or Die Magazine.
Two Marines caused more than $1,000 in damage to a helicopter on display in a local park after dining and dashing at a Waffle House near Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point, North Carolina, on Saturday, Aug. 20.
According to police in Havelock, North Carolina, surveillance video of aircraft on static display at the town’s Tourist and Event Center showed two men walking up to and climbing on an RF-4B in the early hours of Saturday morning. Police say the pair also climbed on an HH-46E helicopter and tried to spin the Phrog’s blades, then broke the helicopter’s windows to get inside.
Image released by Havelock police.
One wore a sweatshirt with “USMC” plainly visible as he walked past the planes, but it appears to have been a decision to dine and dash from a local Waffle House earlier that got the two Marines caught.
“The two males walked out of the restaurant without paying for their food,” the Havelock Police Department wrote in a press release. “Waffle House [employees] reviewed their video camera footage and recognized the two males from the Tourist & Event Center footage.”
Havelock Police Department image.
Pfc. William J. West and Lance Cpl. Andrew E. Carranza turned themselves in to the Havelock Police Department on Tuesday.
The vandalism was reported around 3 a.m. on Saturday. Police said the suspects had dipped from the nearby Waffle House about an hour before then.
An HH-64 helicopter, known in the Marine Corps as the Phrog, at the Havelock, North Carolina, Tourist & Event Center. Photo from TripAdvisor.
West and Carranza were charged with injury to real property and disorderly conduct. After being charged, the two Marines returned to Cherry Point. The two have an initial court appearance on Sept. 1.
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Jenna Biter is a staff writer at Coffee or Die Magazine. She has a master’s degree in national security and is a Russian language student. When she’s not writing, Jenna can be found reading classics, running, or learning new things, like the constellations in the night sky. Her husband is on active duty in the US military. Know a good story about national security or the military? Email Jenna.
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