The quiet streets of Edenton jolted awake Monday morning when 75-year-old Marie Steinburg stepped into her driveway and found more than her car waiting for her. As she clicked the unlock button, she saw movement in the back seat — a shadow shifting where no shadow should be. Then the truth hit her: an escaped inmate was hiding inside her vehicle.
The man was Charles Babb, a fugitive who slipped out of the Chowan County Detention Center the night before, armed with a small hand-held edged weapon. Steinburg had heard the emergency alert about the escape, but never imagined the suspect would wind up wrapped in one of her own garage blankets, shivering in the dark.
“He kept saying, ‘I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I’m so cold,’” Steinburg recalled. Both startled, both unsure of what would happen next, she leaned on instinct. “I thought, I’ll try the mother act.” She offered to get him a coat, buying time while gauging whether he meant harm. Babb asked if she had a phone, asked where the nearest McDonald’s was, and apologized again.
“I figured if I was nice to him, he’d be nice to me,” she said. Her calm approach worked. The inmate slowly backed out of the driveway and slipped away as Steinburg hurried inside. Her husband dialed 911.
Police found Babb a short time later, ending his brief and bewildering flight from custody. But the strange encounter came with a twist: Babb had unknowingly chosen the home of former state senator Bob Steinberg, who spent a decade pushing for prison reform.
“It worked out the way it was supposed to,” Steinberg said. “I was very proud of my wife. She didn’t alarm him. She talked to him. She kept things steady.”
Babb left behind a few reminders of his visit — jail-issued slides, a face mask, and a story the Steinburgs won’t soon forget. As for Marie, she says she’s walking away with one clear takeaway.
“It’s one of those things that we learned,” she said. “I’ll be making sure my doors are locked from now on.”
The Chowan County Sheriff’s Office continues to investigate how Babb managed his escape — and how close the situation came to turning far more dangerous.
