Walden's BBQ Owners Discuss Encounter With Fugitive

​**UPDATE** The fugitive was captured Thursday around 4pm. CLICK HERE FOR STORY.

Darren Doyle, story
Jason and Tina Walden don't open their popular barbeque restaurant until lunchtime, but they're at their location early every morning to get the fires going and the BBQ smoking.

This morning was out of the ordinary to say the least.

"I got here around 7:40 this morning," said owner Tina Walden. "I parked out front, unlocked the door and went in. I sat my purse down and turned around and here is this guy standing there in my store looking at me."

Walden said she didn't know at the time, but the man was escaped inmate Craig Troutman, who had managed to come inside without Walden knowing.

"He was just standing there and he said he needed to use the phone. I told him we weren't open yet, but he just stood there and that's when I started to get nervous. I started backing up and that's when he just took off out the front door."

Walden said the man ran to her car which she could see through the front window and he tried to get inside. She said luckily the keys weren't in it, so he took off through the Main Street Center parking lot towards Alford's Pharmacy.

Shoes from the escaped prisoner outside of Alford's Pharmacy. Security footage from the pharmacy showed the man leaving them there.

Walden said the man eventually ran around the back of the building and met up with her husband, Jason, who was cooking out back.

"He yelled at me and said, 'your associate wouldn't let me use the phone', and I said, 'yeah, we're not going to, either,'" Jason said. "He ran up the hill and he was gone. I didn't know who he was, I just know he was weird, but I see lots of weird things, so I didn't really think anything about it until I saw a deputy's car driving up. I pointed in the direction he went."

Tina said she wasn't sure how he got inside the restaurant without her knowing. She said she didn't hear the door open so it was possible he could've been inside before she was, however, she didn't confirm that.
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Troutman's shoes were found outside of Alford's Pharmacy and his black and white striped, jail-issued shirt was found in a trash can outside the courthouse. He is still at large and is being sought by local law enforcement.

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