PAGELAND, S.C. — A woman was pumping gas Monday afternoon at the Marathon gas station on Highway 9 in Pageland and when she walked inside to pay, a stranger grabbed her.
Workers inside thought it was a domestic squabble at first.
Betty Laney was working in the store when the woman ran inside.
"This lady comes running in the store, and she says, 'Please call the police! Please call the police!" Laney said.
The woman fell to her knees in front of the cash register and they saw someone race off out of the parking lot, in her Jeep.
Cleve Leach Jr. was arrested in Mullins in connection with attacking the woman and stealing her car, officials said.
Pageland police said it started in the town of Mullins almost two hours from Pageland. Four men left Mullins driving to Charlotte for a party. They stopped in Pageland and shoplifted more than $500 in steaks from the Food Lion.
Police said Leach Jr. left the other three at the Food Lion and fled in their car. A short time later, that car was found abandoned at a Dollar General just down the street from there.
Police Sgt. Shane Whitley said Leach then walked to the Marathon gas station, approached the woman, and assaulted her for her car.
"She was yelling at him and trying to pull away from him, but he was still able to gain access to the keys for her vehicle," he said.
Though police haven't released the surveillance video from the Marathon, employees were able to watch it, and see the struggle between the woman and the attacker.
"He was wrestling with her, with her hands, to get the car keys out of her hands. It was awful," Laney said.
Channel 9 reached out to the victim on Tuesday, but she didn't want to talk about what happened.
Two of the three men who were originally with Leach, Tory Antonio Williams and Taurean Lavar Turner, were charged with shoplifting after Leach left them behind at the Food Lion.
The stolen Jeep is a black 2014 Wrangler with a South Carolina tag JXZ-378.
Leach is charged with two counts of grand larceny, one count of shoplifting and one count of assault and battery.
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