Long Neck store owner throws in towel

Charlie Pollard has had enough. With two burglaries on two consecutive nights earlier in the week, Pollard closed the doors to his Long Neck Kick n’ Chicken on Saturday, April 22.

Pollard said his fried chicken store on Route 24 has been burglarized 13 times in the past three years. The store has been vandalized, broken into and the windows have also been shot out since it was opened six years ago.

The day after Pollard shuttered his restaurant, a neighboring Walgreens was robbed at gunpoint. Police are now searching for a man who held up the store April 23 and fled with an undisclosed amount of cash.

“My employees were afraid to go to work,” Pollard said. “I feel bad closing the store, but when it comes down to the health and safety of my employees, I don't have a choice.”

About a week earlier, a neaby Dollar General Store was robbed at gunpoint.

Pollard blames the heroin epidemic for the rash of crime. “It absolutely has to do with the heroin epidemic,” he said.

He said he still has a lease on the property and would like to find someone to operate a Kick n’ Chicken franchise or sublet the space.

Pollard's decision to close his restaurant comes on the heels of a spike in heroin overdoses in western Sussex County.

The Delaware State Police and the Department of Health and Social Services warned residents over the weekend about an outbreak of heroin overdoses. In a 24-hour period starting April 20, emergency responders reported seven overdoses in the Seaford and Laurel areas, said Jill Fredel, director of communications for DHSS. Two people died, she said, while emergency responders used naloxone, an overdose-reversing medication, to stabilize 20 people before transporting them to the hospital. Fifteen of the 20 were from western Sussex County; Fredel said she was unsure where the other five where from.

In comparison to Sussex County, Fredel said, naloxone was used over the weekend on eight people in Kent and New Castle counties combined.

“There was something happening in western Sussex, but we don't know exactly what it is,” she said.

Testing on the two people who died may identify the chemicals in their bodies, but it will take a few weeks for results, she said.

Pollard said he fears drug-related crimes will continue unless the community puts a stop to it. Long Neck is known for its affordable housing, and with low-cost housing comes a drug culture, he said.

“The problem is there is very little affordable housing in eastern Sussex,” he said. “When someone has a drug habit, they need to bring in other people to help pay their bills or they get evicted. And usually they get other drug people and you get five or six of them that only have to pay $100 a month and they can live somewhere where they can operate their crime sprees.” 

“It's escalating. It's a crime committed on our community,” he said. “There are too many people who turn their eyes away from things happening and don't speak up when they are aware things are happening. And then when they become victims, they are insulted,” he said.

On April 22, Pollard said he notified his customers through Facebook about closing the store, and he was touched by the number of people who responded. Words of support came from people from across the country, many who voiced similar issues in their communities.

Pollard said the heroin epidemic is a national problem, but it is up to local communities to end it.

“It's allowed to exist because people tolerate it. Somebody has to take a stand,” he said.