The town is welcoming and feels safe.
“Oh, I love living in Benton,” David Wells says of the city he’s called home for 30 years.
But, details surrounding one woman’s arrest has a few arrows pointed toward concern.
Police say officers showed up to a theft call at Saline Memorial Hospital on Sunday to find Maylea Richmond stuffing her bags with medical equipment.
A report states she admitted herself into the emergency room for dehydration.
She later told officers she used her IV to inject herself with meth.
“Yeah. It’s shocking to hear that,” Wells says.
“I have never heard of anything that brazen.”
Before she got to Saline Memorial, the trail of reported crime started at Walmart where a police report stayed she swiped somebody’s keys and a sweatshirt and then took off to her next stop. She made her second stop here at the Walgreens on Military where some employees say she hid some items in her clothes before then going to the hospital.
“It’s really sad,” Wells says.
As of Tuesday afternoon, Richmond remained in the Saline county jail on drug charges.
Wells remains optimistic about the city he loves and believes it has a heart for those who need help.
“There’s a lot of sympathy for people who have those types of problems.”
