Car theft victim speaks out after arrest of West Lake suspect

EVANS, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) - After searching for more than a day in the West Lake neighborhood, a suspected criminal is off the street and behind bars.

We talked to one of the victims Richard Dahlheimer reportedly targeted during his run from the law.

Charges are climbing for Dahlheimer, who led deputies on a two-county manhunt. At the end of a 25-hour standoff, Dahlheimer was arrested after barricading himself under a home in the West Lake subdivision.

Right now Dahlheimer is in the Columbia County jail without bond and has 13 charges ranging from probation violation to running from police.

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In a world where technology can be your friend one day and your enemy the next, Jamie Gregory says social media and bank fraud alerts helped him find his wife’s stolen vehicle.

Gregory says small mistakes are now coming with a large price tag, at least when it comes to his family.

“It was just an oopsie that morning. Normally she takes everything with her, and she had her car keys inside. But she left her wallet in her car. You know, she’s been working for the same company since 2013. And she never had anything like this happen to her before,” Gregory says.

He was talking about his wife, Jessica, who didn’t know her car and cards were missing until the bank called her about fraud charges.

“Capital one sent her a text message on her phone about financial charges on her credit card she went to go out into her vehicle to get her car to give them the security code. And that’s when she realized her vehicle had been stolen,” Gregory says.

He says security footage from his wife’s job shows a man matching the description of alleged carjacker Dahlheimer.

Gregory says there were security cameras “where he lunged across the desk and grabbed the car keys, and it was clear as day. You can see the tattoo on the side of his neck. And once Richmond County saw the video, they identified him pretty quickly.”

Snapchat led him to find the car.

“I had the bright idea that my wife had sent me a Snapchat on social media, that my son’s iPad was in the backseat of the car. I told her, I said, ‘We will track that,’” he says.

The ordeal left the family with $13,000 worth of damage on a car they just paid off.

“He had ripped the radio out in the front of the car. He thought we were tracking him through the GPS and the radio. He ripped part of the steering wheel off because it was connected to the radio and it had a little Onstar button on it. He ripped the headlights down the red wire and out of the car. And pulled fuses out. There were a couple of cuts in the seat,” Gregory says.

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