Gunman on Blue Ridge Parkway takes man’s car keys and wallet, park rangers report

A tourist on the Blue Ridge Parkway was left stranded in the North Carolina mountains after a man pulled a gun and took his wallet, cell phone and car keys, according to the National Park Service.

It happened around 7 p.m. on Feb. 24, on the section between the French Broad Overlook and the Walnut Cove Overlook, officials said. That area is just outside of Asheville.

Investigators released details Tuesday — including surveillance photos — in hopes someone will recognize the suspect.

The tourist has not been identified, and authorities did not say if he was injured during the incident. His car was not taken, but could not be operated due to lack of keys, officials said.

“The suspect approached him at his vehicle, brandished a handgun, and demanded his keys, wallet, and cell phone then fled,” the National Park Service officials said in a new release. “The vehicle used to flee the scene is described as a darker-color sedan with taillights similar to a Mitsubishi Lancer.”

The suspect spent the next 24 hours on a shopping spree with the victim’s credit cards. This included visits to “a gas station in Arden, a home improvement store in Hendersonville, and a grocery store in Asheville,” NPS officials said.

Photos show the suspect wore a black mask over his face as he used the credit cards.

The Blue Ridge Parkway is a scenic road that runs 469 miles through Virginia and western North Carolina, and it’s the “most visited” site administered by the National Park Service. It had 14.1 million visitors in 2020, the NPS reports. (The most visited “national park” is the nearby Great Smoky Mountains National Park, officials say.)

Reports of serious crimes on the parkway are not common, but there was a murder in 2016. In that case, Seth Willis Pickering stabbed a child to death as park rangers approached him. The child was Pickering’s daughter. He was sentenced to life in prison, the NPS reports.

“This crime is a reminder that the Parkway is not immune to the types of incidents one can experience anywhere else,” Chief Ranger Neal Labrie said in the recent news release.

Anyone with information on the case is asked to contact the NPS Investigative Services Branch at 888-653-009, or email nps_isb@nps.gov. (The case number is NP21016044.)

This story was originally published March 24, 2021 at 1:47 PM with the headline "Gunman on Blue Ridge Parkway takes man’s car keys and wallet, park rangers report."