I recently spent about eight hours with photographer Dania Maxwell visiting with employees of 24-hour establishments following a rash of armed robberies at Waffle Houses in Lee County.

The employees we talked to recounted the nights they were robbed at gunpoint and talked about how they were scared to return to work. The story ran A1 Sunday above the fold and I had some good feedback about the writing specifically.

Another recent highlight is my story about alligator activity in the county. As the weathe warms up, these reptiles start wandering and calls from scared residents start pouring in.

In other crime news, I’ve written about the arrest of an accused child abuser, a teacher accused of having sex with a student, a low-income RV park that’s making its residents leave, and a woman caught living in a storage unit with a young child.