A reporter at the Clinton Courier News will be taken off the county government beat for now as authorities investigate a missing keys report filed Monday by Anderson County Mayor Terry Frank, the newspaper’s publisher said Tuesday.

Frank filed the missing keys report after the Monday night meeting of the Anderson County Commission in Clinton. She told Anderson County Sheriff’s Department Cpl. Bradley A. Prewitt that she had stored her keys under a desk and noticed them missing sometime after 10:30 p.m. Monday. She said she had left her seat during the meeting to address the commission and for a break, and Courier News reporter Chris Silcox had sat in or near her seat at some point during the meeting, Prewitt wrote in an incident report.

After the meeting, Frank said Silcox contacted her and explained, via text message, that he had unintentionally grabbed her keys, mistaking them for his wife’s. Silcox made arrangements to return the keys to Richard Burroughs, Frank’s chief of staff, Prewitt said, but only the auto key fob and business key were returned.

“Ms. Frank advised that her home and office keys were still missing,” Prewitt said. [Read more…]