Hillsborough police are investigating 10 motor vehicle break-ins at apartment complexes in the southern part of town.

The incidents occurred between March 19 and April 21 at Ashford Lakes Apartment Homes on Churton Street and Coachwood Apartments on Cheshire Drive. The property theft exceeds $4,000 in value, with damages of more than $8,000. The incidents have also led to credit card fraud in Hillsborough, Durham and Raleigh. Police have surveillance footage of two suspects and their vehicle. They request the public’s help in identifying the suspects.

One suspect is a white man about 5 feet 6 inches to 5 feet 10 inches tall and weighing 155 to 180 pounds. He has a tattoo on the right side of his neck. The second suspect is a white woman about 5 feet 4 inches to 5 feet 8 inches tall and weighing 140 to 160 pounds. She has light/medium color hair. The suspects’ vehicle is a gold minivan, possibly a Plymouth or Chrysler.

If you have any information, please contact Detective Chip White at 732-9381 ext. 37. For an immediate police response, call 911.

Lt. Davis Trimmer will serve as acting police chief of Hillsborough when current Chief Clarence Birkhead steps down Friday. Trimmer currently heads the Criminal Investigations Division.

Birkhead has been chief for five years and was chief of the Duke University police force before that. He is resigning to focus full time on his campaign for sheriff against incumbent Lindy Pendergrass, and if he wins the Democratic primary in May, against Republican Buddy Parker in November.  

Trimmer, 49, will oversee a department with 32 employees and a $2.4 million budget this year. Sgt. Scott Nicolaysen, an investigator, will serve as acting commander of the Criminal Investigations Division during the transition.

Trimmer joined the Hillsborough Police Department in June 2006 as commander of the Criminal Investigations Division. He supervises the department’s investigators and narcotics officers and is the head firearms instructor for the department.

Trimmer started his law enforcement career in 1993 at Duke University Police, rising through the ranks there to lieutenant and serving in investigations and patrol.

Plans for selecting a new police chief are being developed. Replacing a department head position typically takes about six months. The process includes advertising the position, screening applicants, conducting interviews and performing background investigations.

In what may be Orange County's race to watch, Hillsborough Police Chief Clarence Birkhead has announced he'll step down April 2 to focus on challenging long-term Sheriff Lindy Pendergrass in the May Democratic primary.

“I feel that I should devote all of my energies to my campaign," Birkhead in a statement. "Under the circumstances, I feel it is best for the Town of Hillsborough and my campaign to step down.”

Birkhead, 49, has been Hillsborough’s police chief for almost five years, starting with the town on July 5, 2005. His annual salary was $92,751. He supervised a department with 32 employees and a $2.4 million budget in Fiscal Year 2010.

“For almost five years I have been devoted to the service of the Town of Hillsborough and its citizens,” Birkhead stated. “During my tenure, the Police Department has markedly improved its service to our citizens. We have experienced successes in all areas of police service. I am confident that I leave the department in a strong position for continued success and excellent service under the leadership of my successor.”

Town Manager Eric Peterson hopes to name an interim chief by early next week.

Hillsborough police chief Clarence Birkhead filed to run for Orange County sheriff today.

Birkhead, 49, is also the former Duke University police chief. He's run the Hillsborough  department since 2005.

We couldn't reach Sheriff Lindy Pendergass tonight to see if he’s running again. He won his seventh term at age 72 four years ago, with 81 percent of the vote.

As sheriff, Birkhead said he would expand collaboration with neighboring law enforcement agencies and operate a transparent department. He said he supports the county’s policy on illegal immigrants, which stops short of the 287(g) program like Alamance County has in which sheriff’s officers act as immigration agents.

He also said he would look into crowding at the Orange County jail, a persistent problem, according to state inspection reports.

“What Sheriff Pendergrass has done the last 50 years in law enforcement is very good, very solid,” Birkhead said. “I just think it’s time to move the sheriff’s department forward.” 

We'll have more on this and other filings in tomorrow's N&O and Wednesday's Chapel Hill News.  

The state has dropped plans for a controversial bypass around historic Churton Street, a DOT official said Thursday.

“Overwhelmingly, we have gotten negative comments and opposition to the project,” Jamille Robbins, of the Department of Transportation’s Human Environment Unit, told Chapel Hill News correspondent Tammy Grubb today.

Since it was proposed in 1969, the Elizabeth Brady Road extension had faced tough opposition. Last year, more than 1,000 residents signed a petition against building the road, saying it would harm Hillsborough’s natural and cultural resources, as well as force residents to move. The road was expected to pass through historic sites Ayr Mount and the Occonneechee-Orange Speedway.

Hillsborough Mayor Pro Tem Mike Gering was glad to hear the news. “That is consistent with everyone’s position,” he told Grubb. “This decision is fiscally responsible and sensitive to the community’s needs.”

Hillsborough is the new home of an unusual solar energy company that is expanding photovoltaic cells beyond rooftops and integrating them into the sides and windows of homes.

Nature's Energy Solutions opened its Hillsborough headquarters on Monday and plans to employ eight people at the site. The company manufactures its 19 products at a manufacturing facility in Fredricksburg, Va., that began operating last month.

The company specializes in making solar photovoltaic roofing shingles, solar windows, home siding and window shades, among other solar energy products. It's part of an experimental technology wave that some scientists believe will ultimately lead to the widespread adoption of solar photovoltaic paint that can convert sunshine into electricity.

Orange County Sheriff's Investigator Chris Upchurch said today his team is still trying to identify the victim of a fatal shooting at the Platinum Royale strip club late Saturday night. He said the man was Hispanic but could release no additional information about him. "I'm still trying to verify some information about him," Upchurch said. Another man and a woman were injured in the shooting, and Upchurch declined to release their names pending additional investigation.

This came too late to get in the paper this morning:

HILLSBOROUGH — A man was shot by a homeowner Friday night during a burglary to a home on Faucette Mill Road.

Christopher Jerome Williams, 19, of 626 Wildaro Court in Hillsborough was shot in the chest at 11:30 p.m. He was transported to UNC Hospitals, where he underwent surgery. He is expected to survive.

Hillsborough police have charged Williams and Audricus Southerland, 18, of 316 Lakeshore Drive in Hillsborough with first-degree burglary. They were found within a few minutes of the initial call at a relative’s residence, less than a mile away from the burglarized home. The burglary and shooting were reported by the homeowner at 11:34 p.m.

Police are seeking two others involved in the incident and expect to file additional charges soon. No charges have been filed against the homeowner involved in the shooting.

The homeowner reported the following to Hillsborough police: On Friday night, the homeowner heard the door to his residence being forced open. He retrieved his weapon and found three people standing in his living room. He fired one shot from a pistol and struck Williams. After the shooting, he saw four men running from his residence.

Southerland is in Orange County Jail under $100,000 bond. Williams remains at UNC Hospitals.

Longtime Hillsborough resident Bryant Kelly Warren Jr. has announced that he will seek election to the Hillsborough Town Commissioner. 

“The members of the current board are doing a good job,” Warren says, “but many concerned citizens have urged me to run in belief that it's time for new people with my type of experience to become commissioners and carefully oversee the growth of this town we all hold dear.”

I am running for re-election to the Hillsborough Town Board.  I have served three terms on the board and have made many accomplishments with the current board members.  I believe we make a great team and I would like to continue to be of service to the Town or Hillsborough.