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A Staunton man was arrested following an attempted car theft at the Steeles Tavern Post Office last Wednesday night.
Deputies from the Rockbridge County Sheriff’s Office responded to a call at 9:40 p.m. on April 12 in which the female caller stated that a man had locked himself inside the post office after her father had started chasing him after the man had gotten into her car.
Deputies from the Augusta County Sheriff’s Office also responded and took the suspect, Demon Gunter, 39, into custody. He is currently being held without bond in the Middle River Regional Jail in Staunton on one charge of attempted car theft.
Chris Marshall, whose daughter was the victim of the attempted theft, posted on Facebook about the incident, saying that, after arriving at the post office to meet his daughter, he saw “a black male walking towards her car.” The man got into his daughter’s car and Marshall ran over, yelling at him. The man, he said, then got out of the car and ran into the post office. He also noted that the man was carrying a hammer, though no hammer was found on Gunter when he was arrested.
“Thank goodness no one got hurt, she still has car, and thank the Lord I was there,” he said to conclude the post. “[It’s] hard to say what might/ could have happened.” He also thanked the deputies who responded to the scene.
The Augusta County Sheriff’s Office also received another report from earlier in the evening of another attempted car theft at the Steeles Tavern Post Office by an individual who matched Gunter’s description. The victim, Shirley Richardson, also posted about the incident on Facebook, warning people to “be aware of your surroundings.”
According to her post, Richardson pulled into the post office’s parking lot to finish a phone call “around 8:20 p.m.” While she was sitting there, she noticed movement outside the passenger side of the car where “there was a man … looking to the left and then right and then [he] opened my passenger car door.” Richardson drove off before the man could get into her car, leaving him behind and reporting the incident to the police before making the Facebook post. As of Tuesday, Gunter had not been charged in connection with this incident.
Several people commented on Richardson’s post noting that they had also seen someone matching the description in the area. A resident on Tye River Turnpike (Va. 56) called the Rockbridge Sheriff’s Office at 8:19 p.m. to report that “about 10 minutes” earlier, she’d seen “a man standing and looking into her windows.” The caller described the man as a “black, skinny male” wearing an “orange shirt and orange hat,” which matches the description
