A 42-year-old Cary man is facing a felony charge after driving his vehicle into a concrete barrier protecting a propane tank in rural Goldston, then setting a fire inside the car's fuel tank, according to the Chatham County Sheriff's Office. Deputies say the vehicle never exploded and the incident posed no ongoing threat to the public once they intervened.
The Chatham County Sheriff's Office responded to a report of a suspicious person at 300 NC Highway 42 in Goldston on Sunday, August 31, according to a Chatham County Sheriff's Office Facebook post. Deputies determined that Matthew Robert Steinle had driven his vehicle into a concrete wall built to protect a nearby propane tank. Steinle lives more than 40 miles away at 205 Carpenter Brook Drive in Cary, according to the sheriff's office, and it remains unclear why he was in the small Chatham County town, which recorded just 234 residents in the 2020 U.S. Census, according to Wikipedia.
Fire Set Inside the Fuel Tank
After the crash, deputies say Steinle placed paper inside his vehicle's fuel tank and set it on fire. Once deputies contacted him, they took steps to safely resolve the situation, and the vehicle did not explode, the sheriff's office reported. Concrete barriers like the one struck in Goldston are engineered specifically to prevent high-impact collisions from rupturing pressurized propane tanks and triggering leaks or explosions, a safety design detailed in prior Hoodline coverage of a car striking a propane tank in White Hall.
Steinle was charged with one count of felony possession of an incendiary or explosive device. Under North Carolina General Statute § 14-49, possessing an explosive or incendiary device or material with intent to damage property or cause injury is classified as a Class H felony. The statute defines a qualifying device or material, per § 14-50.1, as any destructive incendiary compound, formulation, or substance capable of being used for destructive explosive or incendiary purposes, as outlined by the North Carolina General Assembly.
Case Headed to Pittsboro Courthouse
Steinle's case is scheduled for a September 21 hearing in Chatham County District Court, located at 40 E. Chatham St. in Pittsboro within North Carolina's Judicial District 15B, according to ChathamNCCourt.us. Goldston sits roughly 13 miles southwest of Pittsboro, the county seat where the case will be heard. Under North Carolina's judicial system, felony cases that begin in District Court are routinely transferred to Superior Court if a county grand jury returns a formal indictment against the defendant.
The case lands during a notable stretch for the Chatham County Sheriff's Office. Steve Maynor was sworn in as sheriff on July 30 after being appointed by the Chatham County Board of Commissioners to succeed outgoing Sheriff Mike Roberson, capping Maynor's two decades with the department, according to Chapelboro.com. Maynor is now running as a Democrat in the November 3 general election for a full term as sheriff against Republican candidate Marcus Globuschutz, per Ballotpedia, putting the department's handling of incidents like the one in Goldston under closer public scrutiny.
The Goldston propane tank incident is the latest in a string of similar cases the sheriff's office and neighboring agencies have handled involving vehicles and pressurized tanks. Hoodline previously reported on a propane bomb plot that shut down a nearby highway and on the standoff response covered in Hoodline's report on a hostage standoff in Chatham County that left a deputy injured. No further details on Steinle's motive or the exact nature of the device have been released.
