Call about gunfire leads deputies to ‘active’ moonshine still at home, NC sheriff says

A moonshine operation was inadvertently uncovered when a North Carolina man summoned deputies to report he was being targeted by a gunman, according to the Burke County Sheriff’s Office.

No shooter was found during a safety sweep of the property, officials said.

However, deputies did find an “active” moonshine still, the sheriff’s office said in a news release.

It happened Friday, March 10, at a home on Kings Mill Road in Valdese, about 70 miles northwest of Charlotte, officials said.

“Deputies responded to a call where a passerby had been flagged down by (a man) advising he had been shot at and he was being chased,” the sheriff’s office reported.

“Deputies arrived on Messer Road and ... escorted him home. At (his) request, deputies checked his residence and in the process of performing a safety sweep of the home located firearms and a barrel of an active manufacturing of non-taxed alcohol, to include raw materials and a fermentation barrel containing materials for brewing called mash.”

They discovered “several holes in the wall” that appeared to show the man “had discharged his firearm inside the home,” officials said.

Deputies obtained a search warrant, which revealed two guns at the home, including “a shotgun with a barrel length less than 18 inches,” officials said.

Deputies also alerted N.C. Alcohol Law Enforcement, which seized the “moonshine still,” officials said.

The 52-year-old man was arrested and charged with possession of weapon by a felon and possession of a weapon of mass destruction, officials said. Bond was set at $30,000.

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