Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, October 21, 1993 TAG: 9310210073
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: TODD JACKSON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
On his way home to Roanoke just before 9 p.m. after helping his brother build a cage for a pet iguana, the 16-year-old paused at a stop sign on Hardy Road to let a man cross in front of his pickup truck.
The man didn't cross, but instead opened the unlocked passenger-side door of Hamlin's pickup and jumped in.
So began a night of terror Hamlin will never forget.
"He told me he wanted to go somewhere, and I first told him to get out," said Hamlin, a student at Patrick Henry High School who just received his temporary driver's license. "But he busted a speaker out with his fist and then pulled a gun on me.
"I asked him if he wanted to take the truck and let me out and he said no," Hamlin said. "So then I asked him where we were going."
The destination turned out to be Greensboro.
"He never told me why," Hamlin said.
With a gun pointed at him and having no idea what was going to happen, Hamlin said he started to spin the wheels of his vehicle whenever possible and speed down U.S. 220 in hopes a police officer would pull him over.
"I was doing about 110 [mph] and he told me to slow down and go the speed limit or he would shoot me," Hamlin said.
Hamlin said the man was relatively quiet after that, until the ride ended in a motel parking lot in Greensboro.
Hamlin said the man then forced him to lie on the floorboard and told him not to raise his head or he would be shot.
"I guess I laid there for 30 to 45 minutes before I got up," Hamlin said. Then, he said, with no money left for gas, "I got to a phone and called my mom before I called the police."
Helen Hamlin said she was sick with worry.
"When we got his call we [she and her husband] rushed down to Greensboro," she said.
The Hamlins arrived back in Roanoke about 5 a.m. Wednesday.
"If it can help anyone, then I want people to know what happened," Helen Hamlin said. "It really could happen to anybody."
Greensboro police said Wednesday night the suspect remains at large.
by CNB