Ventura County Sheriff's Department

The Halfway Café Station is a local bar in the Ozena Valley area of northern Ventura County near Lockwood Valley. This area is extremely remote and isolated. Cellular telephones and radios rarely work, if ever. Quite often, the only means of wireless communication is a satellite telephone.

At approximately 6:00 am on 6-27-08, a female co-owner of the Halfway Café Station was alerted to criminal activity occurring at the establishment and responded from her nearby residence armed with a handgun. When the bar owner arrived, Greg Dunlap was exiting the building carrying two cases of Budweiser beer, a bottle of Root Beer Schnapps, and a carton of cigarettes. The bar owner fired a warning shot into the air and Dunlap became compliant with her directives.

Since no communication methods existed, the bar owner instructed Dunlap to begin walking northbound on Highway 33 while she held him a gunpoint. This was done in the hopes of alerting a passing motorist. No vehicles passed and the bar owner directed Dunlap towards a nearby ranch, but no one was home. She then fired two more shots into the air in an attempt to get someone’s attention. Eventually, individuals from another ranch arrived, and one of the parties drove ten miles and contacted Santa Barbara Resident Deputy Troy Carpenter, who responded as well as notified on-duty law enforcement personnel, including Ventura County Sheriff’s Lockwood Valley Resident Deputy Tom Triplett.

Dunlap was arrested for burglary as well as two outstanding warrants. He was booked at the Pre-Trial Detention Facility and is being held in lieu of $27,500 bail.