Quiet country road rocked by Vick's indictment

One neighbor's complaint: "It's been reported for years. It wasn't that hidden"

Jim Baumbach

July 19, 2007

The house that Michael Vick is alleged to have used to train pitbulls for dogfights is on a long rural road that is described by locals as the essence of country living.

Or, perhaps we should say, used to be.

Everything changed, they say, when Vick purchased the property at 1915 Moonlight Road in Smithfield, Va., in 2001. Soon there was so much noise from the dogs that, according to one woman who lives a mile down the block, "Everybody has been calling the sheriff. It's been reported for years. It wasn't that hidden. The house sits right there by the road. You go by there and you know something's going on."

None of the locals contacted by Newsday today wanted to give their name, saying it would only open them up to more calls from other reporters. And they'd much rather have their lives return to the quietness that used to be the definition of living on Moonlight Road.

Jim Baumbach Bio | E-mail | Recent columns

That's not the case anymore. When news broke in May of the alleged dogfighting training taking place there, television trucks flocked to the property. One neighbor said there have been so many television news trucks there since Vick's indictment this week that she opts to drive the opposite way to leave. "There's two ends to our road," she said. "I use the other end."

Another neighbor who lives four houses away from the property in question admittedly was watching the coverage on ESPN when she answered the phone. "They've been here the whole time," she said.

Vick reportedly sold the property for half its assessed value in less than one day in May, and he opened more than a few eyes in the manner that he did it. The real estate broker contracted to sell the home told the Virginian-Pilot, "By the time that my name was put on the sign out there, there was a contract." And a local business owner later told the Washington Times that "heads will turn" when the new owner is identified.

A phone call this morning to inquire whether the home sale had been registered in Surry County (Va.) Circuit Court was of little help. "You and about 10,000 other people want to know," said the woman who answered the phone. " But I haven't seen a bill of sale yet."

Vick is set to appear in court Thursday, the same day that the Falcons are opening training camp. The residents on Moonlight Road surely hope that will mean that attention will begin to go elsewhere, away from what was once a very quiet, very out-of-the-way country road.

"There's no town here. It's all country. The closest town is 10 miles away," said another woman who has lived on that road for 15 years. " It's a rural area. It has to be, the way he was operating."