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Two men were held up at gunpoint in a small store in Parker County near Azle in the early morning hours of Dec. 10.
But the two on the business end of that shotgun were trying to burglarize the store. Owner David Nettles happened to be sleeping over in his store that night because of a botched burglary two nights earlier, he said. Repairs to the glass door and a side window had not been completed so he was in the back of the store when suspects Kevin Wayne Morgan and Bryan Patrick Grottalio are accused of breaking more glass to gain entry to JD’s “Whip-In” store and grill, at the corner of FM 730 South and Flat Rock Road. Nettles said he pointed his shotgun at the two men and instructed them to “get on the ground and lay still.”
“You don’t want me to tell you how I said it,” he promised. After the two men were down and quiet, Nettles called 911, at about 3 a.m., and told the sheriff’s dispatchers that he had the two at gunpoint. Morgan, 21, and Grottalio, 24, both of Weatherford, are also implicated in a burglary that happened earlier the same morning, in Aledo,at about 1:30 a.m., according to Parker County Sheriff Larry Fowler. Sheriff’s officers were still on the scene in Aledo, at the Midway Food Store on FM 1187, when Nettles called to report the intruders at his store. The two men apparently were trying to take similar items from Nettles’ store as had been stolen in Aledo – cigarettes and cash. Some of the items in their possession were not from Nettles’ store. Nettles said his store had been broken into on Monday of last week but only the lottery machine was taken. It is a simple computer and does not contain cash, although it is similar in appearance to a cash register. Because it belongs to the state, stealing it is a felony, he said. Nettles said he doesn’t believe the two break-ins are necessarily related. Although he is low-key about it, Nettles said he has owned the store about 10 years and there have been “several” break-ins during that time. Morgan was released on $7,500 bond on Dec. 10. Grottalio remained in jail Tuesday in lieu of a $7,500 bond. They have been charged with burglary of a building. |
