EDENTON, N.C. — For Marie Steinburg, Monday morning was like every other day. Marie walked down the back stairs of her home and toward her car to head to work. But the minute she clicked the lock to open it, she noticed something was different.
"I kept backing up little by little by little because I thought, I don't know what this man is going to do," said Marie.
Marie knew that an inmate had escaped from the Chowan County Detention Center Sunday night. But she never expected to find him inside her car as she was leaving the house to go to work Monday morning.
"I headed out the door, and I clicked the unlock, and it must have scared the guy, because the next thing I know, I saw something moving in my back seat," said Marie.
Marie says she was just yards away from 23-year-old Charles Edward Babb, who the Edenton Police Department warned was considered potentially armed and dangerous, when she says he jumped out of her car. She stayed calm and began to talk to him.
"He looked so cold and so scared. I thought, well, I'm not going to try and provoke him. I'm going to try and be very, very nice and pull the mother act on him, like I would with my own kids," said Marie.
Marie says she offered to go grab Babb a coat, but just moments later he took off down the driveway. That's when she ran back inside the home, called up to her husband Bob, and they called 911.
"I got in as fast as I could. I was shaking like a leaf, and I could barely get the key in the lock, but I did," said Marie.
"There seemed to be a little bit of tension and alarm in her voice. And so I said, what's going on? What is it? She said, there's somebody in my car, and I think it's the guy that escaped last night, because he had a jumpsuit on, an orange jumpsuit," said Bob.
The Edenton Police Department captured Babb shortly after nearby. All that was left behind were his shoes. The Steinburgs also say they found a blanket that they believe Babb took from inside the room over their garage and used for warmth while inside the car overnight.
Marie's husband Bob, who served in the North Carolina General Assembly as a senator and representative, can't say enough about how his wife handled the situation.
"I was very proud of my wife. I mean, the way she handled it as I'm hearing about this now from her and others, that she really did a great job at trying to not alarm the young man but at least have a conversation with him," said Bob.
The Steinburgs are thankful that the situation turned out like it did for everyone involved.
"Someone else said to me, I thought this was very interesting. They had mentioned that, well, God must have been watching over Marie yesterday. And I said, you're absolutely right God, was watching over Marie yesterday. But you know something, I think God was watching out over this young man as well, to have him come here," said Bob.
And from now on, Marie will be making sure to lock her car.
"Oh let me tell you, if I don't, he's (Bob) going to. It's one of those things that we learned," said Marie.
