Deputy Serving Eviction Notice Stumbles Upon Meth Lab

Christian Taylor sat on the steps of her mobile home with her infant child on her lap. Both of the pair’s eyes were trained on investigators who uncovered a methamphetamine lab two doors down from her Lincoln County home.

"You don't do criminal background checks on your neighbor," she said.

Her neighbor, Jeffrey Arthur, 41, is charged with keeping a home to make meth. Taylor said she was stunned when Lincoln County Sheriff's Deputy D. Long spotted the lab and chased Arthur on Underwood Lane early Tuesday.

Long went to the mobile home to evict Arthur. Sheriff Tim Daughtery said when Long got there, he noticed materials used to make meth. Daughtery said Arthur ran but was caught.

Donna Johnson lives next door. She said she remembers a strange smell coming from the home, but she thought nothing of it. Tuesday afternoon she decided to follow agents’ recommendation to leave.

"I'm leaving for the safety of my kids and for me because they’re going to be moving stuff around," she said.

She said she worries that the hazardous materials in the home next door could have gotten airborne and affected her and her family of five.

The find makes the fourth meth lab found in Lincoln County this year, and the second in just the past week. Daughtery said he is not surprised by those numbers. He said he always suspected that meth was a hidden problem in Lincoln County.

"We are going to work hard to make sure we get them," he said. "This is just the start. I've said all along we have had them, and now I'm being proved right."

He said his deputies recently started a series of classes to help them identify the materials used to make meth. He said that program helped to uncover the lab Tuesday.

Daughtery said his officers will aggressively pursue those who make meth.

"We are on their tail," he said, "We just don't want meth labs in Lincoln County."