STEPHANIE KLEIN-DAVIS The Roanoke Times

Robert Brown, a 72-year-old retired nursing assistant, said he's now locking the latch on his door at home after the two recent abductions in Clifton Force.

Brad Hodge, the Iron Gate police chief and the town's lone officer, talks about a Sunday incident that initially appeared to be an abduction attempt. He said it was, in fact, just a misunderstanding.

Photos by STEPHANIE KLEIN-DAVIS The Roanoke Times

Roderick Key approaches Moran Convenience Store in Clifton Forge, where a composite sketch of a man linked to two carjacking abductions hangs on the window. The same sketch was posted in windows around town.

CLIFTON FORGE -- Residents here started locking their doors in the past couple of weeks.

It's a small town and an Amtrak stop. Everybody knows everybody, they say along Main Street.

But after two recent carjacking abductions in the middle of Clifton Forge, and a scare in nearby Iron Gate on Sunday, an uneasy feeling has settled over town.

"I put the latch on," said a resident, Robert Brown, who was camped out Wednesday in the parking lot of Moran Convenience Store, near the site of the abductions.

On the store door, a composite sketch of the suspect in both incidents -- white male, 5-feet, 10-inches tall, teardrop tattoo under his left eye -- was posted, as it is in windows around town.

"The lock only keeps the honest man honest," chimed in a native, Bill Taylor, as he ate a banana. "A dishonest man don't care if there's a lock on it."

Up the road, the staff of a Pizza Hut discussed the mood around town. The manager, Kathy Hinkle, now watches the younger employees leave after a late shift.

"I think we're a little more cautious," she said. "But we're not nervous."

Still, anxiety over the abductions has spilled into the sister town of Iron Gate, three miles down the road.

When a man in a green car approached a pair of teenage girls Sunday afternoon, just over the Iron Gate line in Botetourt County, the girls reported that they had nearly been kidnapped.

But the driver was simply trying to deliver a "long-promised sack of onions" to the family of one of the girls, the Botetourt County Sheriff's Office said in a statement Wednesday.

Brad Hodge, the Iron Gate police chief and the town's lone officer, called it a misunderstanding. "You get a certain train of thought, and your interpretation can change," he said.

The first abduction occurred on a Friday afternoon in late September. A woman reported that a man in his late 20s had entered her car, demanded money and forced her to drive to a wooded area.

Less than two weeks later, a second female driver said a man wearing an "old man" Halloween mask jumped into her truck, but she escaped a short while later.

Her attacker drove away in the truck, which was later recovered in a wooded area off Interstate 64 in West Virginia, where it showed signs that it had been set on fire, said Barry Balser, the Clifton Forge police chief.

The abductions come as the town prepares for its fall foliage festival this weekend -- a reminder that Clifton Forge remains a friendly place, said local business owner Glenn Perry.

"I don't think it's changed," he said. Though he added that a few people may have adapted their evening habits on the safer side. "That doesn't hurt, to be a little more cautious."

Staff writer Jorge Valencia contributed to this report.