For the second time in as many weeks , here’s a story about someone who left the big city to escape crime only to be mugged again in a calmer setting.
83-year-old former TV actress Betty Lou Lynn, who played Barney Fife’s love interest on “The Andy Griffith Show,” fled Los Angeles not too long ago for Mayberry-like Mount Airy, North Carolina. Lynn says being mugged twice in LA influenced her decision to move:
Lynn moved to Mount Airy three years ago. She had fallen in love with it during appearances at the annual “Mayberry Days” festivals and was eager to leave Los Angeles, where she had recently been burglarized for the second time. She’d also been robbed in L.A. twice, once on Wilshire Boulevard.
Lynn was outside a local grocery shop on Sunday, gathering money for a cab after purchasing her groceries when a man grabbed her wallet and ran off. Lynn gave chase, but eventually returned to the store to call for backup. Cops arrived soon after, and local officer R.T. Bledsoe apprehended the thief in the Ararat River. Lynn’s wallet was swiftly returned to her, with some of the money- $43- still in it.
Lynn’s greatest concern is that the well-publicized incident will draw negative attention to her newfound hometown:
“I don’t want to hurt Mount Airy’s image,” Lynn said. “LAPD never caught any of those guys.”
