Virginia

Man Hid in Air Conditioning Unit After Crashing Into 10 Cars in Stafford, Police Say

Police say the 37-year-old climbed up a pipe and hid on the roof of a Five Guys restaurant

An intoxicated man who crashed a pickup truck into 10 cars in Stafford County, Virginia, and climbed the roof of a Five Guys restaurant to avoid capture was arrested Monday after sheriff’s deputies found him hiding in an air conditioning unit.

Stafford County sheriff’s deputies arrested the suspect, James Edward Baumann, 37, after responding to reports of multiple car crashes in the parking lot of Stafford Marketplace, a shopping center in Stafford, at about 10 a.m.

According to deputies, Baumann crashed a Ford pickup truck that was hauling a trailer holding another pickup truck into 10 other vehicles, including four cars that were occupied.

Both pickup trucks were apparently stolen, and four people were sent to hospitals with non-life threatening injuries, the sheriff’s office said.

After the collisions, Baumann abandoned the trucks, climbed a metal pipe onto the roof of a Five Guys restaurant and hid inside an air conditioning unit, police say. Deputies found Baumann there and apprehended him.

Baumann was wanted in three counties: Prince William County, Spotsylvania and Stafford. He is being held without bond at Rappahannock Regional Jail. It wasn't immediately clear if he had a lawyer. 

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