Robbers Beat Store Owner With Calculator

Scott's Jewelers in Kings Mountain is planning to reopen in a few days after its owner was attacked during a robbery.

Instead of sparkling jewels and precious metals, a display case at Scott's Jeweler's was still full of broken glass and fingerprinting dust. Scott Ham sait it's an eerie reminder of a brutal crime against his 77 year-old father, Buck Ham, last Wednesday.

Ham said his father was helping a customer when one teen pretended to be interested in buying jewelry when the other teen went over the counter and began attacking his father using a large calculator.

"They hit him in the face repeatedly until the calculator busted into pieces," Ham said. The beating left his father with six stitches in one of his eyelids, a broken nose, a broken bone under his eye, a fractured sinus cavity and a fractured right cheek bone.

Ham said next, the two robbers broke the display case, stole jewelry and snatched one of the stores surveillance cameras on the way out. An eyewitness spotted the boys running from the store and recognized them immediately.

Within two days, the 16-year-old suspects, Drayshawn Banner and Samuel Jenkins were behind bars in the Cleveland County jail.

"We are very relieved they are in custody and we hope that this will be a turning point in their lives as well," Ham said. "We hope that it will be a wake up call that they can't just go out and take whatever they want or harm someone."

Ham said despite the fact that his father has a surgery scheduled for around Thanksgiving and months of recovery ahead, he is doing well and is in good spirits.