Tuesday afternoon, a man dressed in camouflage and carrying a hunting rifle with a scope walked into Waccamaw Insurance in Murrells Inlet and asked to call his mom.
One of the employees, who did not want to be identified, shared the bizarre story with us just a few hours after it happened.
She said she saw the man outside the building from her office window just after 3 p.m. He was wearing a camouflage shirt and had the rifle on his shoulder. At first she thought the man was just a hunter, but then had a feeling that something just wasn't right.
She went to lock the front door, when she says she came eye to eye with the man. He told her he needed to use the telephone.
"You can't unless you give me the gun," she told him.
She says he handed her the rifle, and she showed him the phone. He told her he wanted to call his mom.
While he was on the phone, she carried the gun to the back of the business and told her co-worker to call police and to get the rest of the employees to go into an office and lock the door.
She went back out to the lobby and told the man he was scaring her. She asked him if he was hurt, needed help, or if he wanted her to call police.
He told her he was just trying to call a friend, but said she could call police.
She returned to her co-worker who was on the phone with police. She said the dispatcher had relayed that deputies were already looking for the man.
She returned to the lobby and again told the man she was afraid. She says he told her she wasn't in any danger and said he was going to call his mom one more time.
After the call, he told her it was time for him to go and shook her hand. He reached for the gun and took it and walked out the door and into a wooded area behind the building.
Looking back on the experience, she said she felt threatened at first because she didn't know if the man was going to shoot her. When he initially handed her the gun, she said she was then worried thinking he was in danger and that someone could be coming for him.
A spokesperson for the Georgetown County Sheriff's Office says they did respond to the business and searched the area without finding the man. After speaking with witnesses, deputies determined the man was in Horry County and notified Horry County police.
We have a call into Horry County and will post more details as we get them.
