Pikeville, N.C. — A Wayne County detective says that he caught a Pikeville man cutting wire from a utility pole Friday afternoon.

Detective Carl Lancaster, with the sheriff's office, said that he was driving along Airport Road around 1:30 p.m. when he saw a man cutting grounding wire from a utility pole belonging to Tri-County EMC.

Ronald Edward Wilson, 43, of 212 Pony Drive, was charged with injuring wires and fixtures of telephone, telegraph and electric-power companies. He was placed in the Wayne County Detention Center under a $1,000 secure bond.

Wilson has a criminal record dating to 1987 with more than 50 convictions in Wilson, Edgecombe, Wayne, Johnston and Robeson counties, according to state Department of Correction records.

DOC records show that he has 30 convictions for passing worthless checks, as well as assault inflicting serious injury, assault on a female, carrying a concealed weapon, drug possession and multiple counts of larceny, breaking-and-entering and driving while impaired.