CHARLOTTE — A Hollywood film based on true events that happened right here in Charlotte is out in theaters Friday.
We’re talking about “Roofman.”
It tells the wild story of Jeffrey Manchester, a serial robber who broke into McDonald’s and other businesses through their roofs.
He escaped prison, lived secretly inside a Toys R Us and Circuit City off East Independence Boulevard in southeast Charlotte and was eventually caught in 2005 with help from his then-girlfriend.
Channel 9’s Hunter Sáenz tracked her down, still living in the area, and spoke with her about what happened and her unexpected role in the movie.
“I’m pretty on cloud nine, right now,” said Leigh Moore. “I never saw this coming.”
The Hollywood movie with Kirsten Dunst playing her isn’t something Moore saw coming after living through a shocking low in her life. She was duped and misled by a criminal who would become her boyfriend.
“We first met at church,” Moore said. “He definitely drew attention to himself.”
John Zorn was his name, or at least that’s what he told her.
But a couple months later, she found out his real identity when police and the FBI showed up at her job.
“They said, ‘The man that you’ve been dating is not who you think he is. The man that you’ve been dating is on America’s Most Wanted,’” Moore told Sáenz. “And I said, ‘No way. You have the wrong guy. Absolutely not. I don’t believe you.’”
They took Moore to her office and showed her.
“Pulled it up on my computer and showed me that he was on America’s Most Wanted,” she said. “I just panicked. I was in shock. I started crying and disbelief.”
The name below his picture was Jeffrey Manchester.
“Jeffrey or John was very, very charming,” she said.
Manchester was a serial robber who was sentenced to prison for cutting into the roofs of fast-food restaurants before they opened each day then robbing them when they did. But he escaped prison and made his way to Charlotte.
He called the Toys R Us on East Independence Boulevard home, comically depicted in the movie, until he made a trap door into the neighboring and empty Circuit City, where authorities said he had a bed with Spider-Man sheets and items from the toy store.
The old Toys R Us is now a church and the Circuit City is a Carpet Discount Warehouse.
Manchester ended up robbing the Toys R Us. His his living quarters next door were found.
Police were on to him, which brings us back to Moore, when detectives asked for her help.
“It was my 40th birthday,” Moore said. “So, they had me call him in the back of the police car and pretend that everything was OK and keep my voice calm and I had to say, you know, ‘Pick me up at seven o’clock.’”
Moore said she lured Manchester to her apartment at McAlpine Ridge, but Moore didn’t answer the door.
“No, no, you see, she was here in a cop car in this parking lot of this Chili’s just a mile up the road, listening in on police radio of the takedown of Jeffrey Manchester,” Moore said. “I just heard nothing but shouting and wrestling and things like that.”
“So, your heart is just pounding?” Sáenz asked.
“Yeah. I was just crying. I just felt so bad,” Moore said.
Years later, she got a call from a director, who, with her help, made the ordeal into a Hollywood movie.
Now, Moore is happily married and said Manchester calls her weekly.
“It’s just to catch up?” Sáenz asked.
“Yeah, just what’s new, what’s going on? How was L.A.? How was Charlotte?” she said.
“Just living vicariously?” Sáenz said.
“Yes, yes, exactly. I’m his. I’m his source,” she said.
Moore told Sáenz she has forgiven Manchester and hopes that message resonates with moviegoers.
“That if I can, if I can forgive him, then maybe there’s something they can forgive in their lives,” Moore said.
Moore plays a crossing guard in the film.
Manchester is currently in prison in Raleigh, and he is expected to get out in 2036.
VIDEO: ‘Roofman’ movie starring Channing Tatum premieres in Charlotte
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