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Tow truck driver accused of stealing guns from cars arrested again

CHARLOTTE — A tow truck driver charged with stealing guns out of cars he towed is accused in more cases.

In 2021, Channel 9 first reported David Satterfield was arrested for stealing two guns out of a car he towed.  That driver told us back then that he had two guns taken out of his truck after Satterfield towed it from a concert at PNC Music Pavilion.

“I had the Beretta in here, and the Glock down in here, shoved down in here so you couldn’t see it,” he said then.

Now, court records show detectives have tied Satterfield to more cases.

On Sunday, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department officers arrested Satterfield, who owns the company Automobile Recovery and Parking Enforcement. The new charges accuse Satterfield of stealing two guns and other items from other vehicles he’s towed.

Channel 9′s Genevieve Curtis spoke with a woman who filed a police report after her encounter with Satterfield and his towing business.

Sheritte Corbin said on Mother’s Day in 2021, Satterfield towed her car to a lot on Orr Street. But when she got her car back, she said her 9 millimeter handgun was missing.

“I immediately checked my purse and I checked for my weapon,” Corbin told Curtis. “My purse was there, my wallet was there, but my weapon was gone.”

She said Satterfield denied knowing what happened to it, so she filed a police report.

After two years, she figured the gun was long gone.

“It was terrible, I was devastated,” Corbin said. “What more can I do about it?”

That was until recently, when a CMPD officer contacted her. They found her gun and arrested Satterfield. He was booked into the Mecklenburg County jail Sunday, facing multiple felony charges including larceny of a firearm, breaking or entering a motor vehicle, felony larceny and possession of a firearm by a felon.

“You are using your business to abuse other people and it’s not fair, so I was happy to hear that an arrest had been made, and that my weapon is in the hands of the police and not his,” she said.

Satterfield is scheduled to go to trial in December on the 2021 charges. Curtis spoke to the driver in that case on Thursday. He said he still hasn’t gotten his two guns back, but hopes he will after the case goes to trial in December.

“As soon as he gets out, he’s going to do it again,” the man said. “He’s obviously doing it every time he gets out. From when he did it to me, you see that with all the other charges.”

Satterfield’s towing business has also been in legal trouble. In 2020, when it was called Charlotte A1 Solutions, North Carolina’s attorney general sued the company for price gouging during the pandemic. It accused him of improperly towing trucks and charging the drivers $4,000.

Corbin said she doesn’t want to see anyone else go through this.

“He needs to be out of business, he really does,” she said.

Curtis also went back through Satterfield’s criminal history. He’s been in and out of prison since the 1980s for the same crimes he’s accused of now.

Curtis also spoke to Satterfield by phone Thursday. He claims in all of these cases, his employees stole the guns, not him.

(WATCH BELOW: 9 Investigates: North Carolinians face tough battles against towing companies)

Michael Stolp

Michael Stolp, wsoctv.com

Michael is an investigative reporter for Channel 9.

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