Unicoi County Sheriff’s Office receives vehicle donation, supplies from South Carolina

UNICOI COUNTY, Tenn. (WJHL)—On Wednesday, the Unicoi County Sheriff’s Office received two donated vehicles filled with supplies from the residents and police department in North Charleston, South Carolina.

The North Charleston Police Department donated two Chevy Tahoes filled with supplies and other donations from the North Charleston community.

North Charleston Police Captain Rick Keys used to work for the Unicoi County Sheriff’s Office in the 1980s, where he became a friend of Unicoi County Sheriff Mike Hensley. Keys said it was difficult to see the shape of Unicoi County.

“We filled up both of them this morning with everything that citizens had donated which was boxes of shoes, diapers, socks, coats, blankets, toys, everything that we could fit into them, and so we brought them with us too,” Keys said. “It was just nice to help out an area that I spent most of my life in.”

Hensley said that the support for his county has been “unreal.”

“It’s just not them,” he said. “It’s all over Tennessee and other states. They have called me, and the outpouring of support to this county has been unreal, and we really appreciate it.”

Hensley mentioned how fortunate the county is to receive such a valuable donation, acknowledging its rarity.

“I know what it means to live on a fixed income and try to raise taxes; you can’t afford it, so anything that we can get from another department, we’re blessed to have that,” he said. “When you start equipping a police vehicle, it’s very expensive, but these vehicles are already equipped, so that’s a huge saving to the taxpayers of this county.”

Earlier in the month, Unicoi County EMS received three donated ambulances from Northwestern Emergency in West Jefferson, North Carolina, after losing four of its five vehicles to Hurricane Helene.

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