Eureka Police are trying to identify a man who allegedly could be seen on surveillance footage damaging an SUV parked outside the Walmart store at 131 Eureka Towne Center Drive. The SUV apparently was parked too close to a pickup the man was trying to get in, Eureka Police reported.
At about 10:45 a.m. May 10, the man was seen on the footage attempting to get into the driver side of a GMC 1500, and when he couldn’t get the door open wide enough to get inside, he went to the passenger side, where he allegedly ripped a mirror off the 2017 Hyundai Santa Fe and then got into the pickup, Capt. David Wilson said.
Before the man allegedly tore off the mirror, a woman who was with him went inside the store to try to find the SUV owner and get the person to move the vehicle. However, the man allegedly damaged the SUV before the woman he was with returned from the store, the report said.
The owner of the Santa Fe turned out to be a 59-year-old Franklin County woman. She was shopping in the store and was paged to come to the service desk, where she met the woman who arrived with the suspect, according to the report.
The Franklin County woman agreed to move the SUV and exited the store with the other woman, but when they exited the store, the suspect already had pulled out of the parking spot. He honked the horn to get the attention of the woman who had arrived with him, and she got into the pickup, and they drove away, the report said.
The victim went to her SUV and found the mirror on the ground next to the passenger-side door. The damage to the SUV was estimated at $250, according to the report.
The suspect was described as about 6-feet tall and weighing about 300 pounds. He had dark, thinning hair and was wearing an orange shirt and jeans. The woman who arrived with him was described as about 5-foot-3-inches tall and weighing about 125 pounds. She had dark, straight hair, and she was wearing jeans and a dark T-shirt, the report said.
Anyone with information about the incident or the identity of the people from the surveillance footage is asked to call Eureka Police at 636-938-6600.