Man set fire in Sheetz after card declined then hid under semi with hammer, VA cops say
A hammer-wielding man was found hiding under a tractor-trailer outside a Lowe’s after Virginia police say he set a fire at a Sheetz convenience store that wouldn’t take his credit card.
The man left the store in Wytheville after his credit card was declined around 3:30 a.m. Tuesday.
But he returned not long after with a gas can, which he emptied on the floor, according to a news release from the Wytheville Police Department.
He then set the gas ablaze and ran out of the store, taking off in a burgundy sedan, police said.
Police said a manager at the Sheetz “quickly extinguished the fire,” and police and fire officials were called to the store.
Officers with the police department and deputies with the Wythe County Sheriff’s Office got a description of the man and the car and started searching the area for him.
While they were searching, police said a nearby Kangaroo Express was “broken into with merchandise stolen.”
An officer soon found the car parked at an apartment complex, but the suspect was nowhere to be found.
But shortly after, a deputy found the man under a tractor-trailer near a Lowe’s Home Improvement store and armed with a hammer, police said.
A “short standoff” ensued, and officers used a taser to “subdue” the man and take him into custody, police said.
He is charged with felony arson, felony burglary, felony destruction of property, misdemeanor destruction of property and two counts of misdemeanor larceny, police said.
Police said the investigation is ongoing and that more charges are possible. The suspect is being held in the New River Valley Regional Jail without bond.
Wytheville is in southwestern Virginia, about 250 miles from Richmond.
