Store Robber Dons Mask After Chatting With Clerk
A robber netted $100 in a convenience store heist, but his mask-backward attempt to disguise himself flopped.
The suspect entered the Exxon Food Store at Third and Monroe last Thursday about 3:30 a.m., chatted with the clerk, and then asked for the keys to the restroom. Moments later the robber emerged from the restroom with a nylon stocking over his head.
“I’m sorry I have to do this to you, but I need your money,” the newly disguised man told the clerk.
The clerk, her memory still fresh from the earlier conversation, gave police a detailed description of the robber.
The man took about $100 from the store’s cash register and ran.
The clerk said the suspect was white, wore glasses, was 5-foot-6, had brown hair and a receding hairline, and wore a light brown jacket and blue jeans.
Police are investigating the incident as an armed robbery.
Crack cocaine prompts arrest
Three women were arrested late Tuesday night after a routine traffic stop.
Spokane police stopped Lori J. Lara, 30, 4003 E. 24th, at Third and Pittsburg, for driving erratically about 11:35 p.m.
She was detained and searched. Police found more than 20 rocks of crack cocaine on Lara, who was booked on charges of delivery of a controlled substance and possession with intent to deliver.
Two passengers, Kimberly Kay Evans, 31, 702 S. Bernard, and Janet Marie Simpson, 30, address not available, were booked on charges of conspiracy to deliver a controlled substance.
Home burglaries increase
Sheriff’s deputies report a rash of home burglaries in the central West Plains area. Homeowners are returning home to find doors kicked in, rooms ransacked and tire tracks in the yard.
“In every case a vehicle was used to clean out the houses,” said sheriff’s spokesman Dave Reagan.
Unfortunately, “the bad guy will not go to the same area day after day. They’ll kind of move around, so no one is looking for a specific vehicle,” Reagan added.
The best advice for now? Keep an eye on your neighbors’ homes and report suspicious activities.
These are some of the burglaries that have occurred:
Someone took $1,000 cash last Thursday from a home in the 21800 block of Harrison.
The victim left his locked residence around 6:30 a.m. and returned at 3:30 p.m. He found his front door kicked in and the master bedroom ransacked.
A man returned home March 18 to find the rear door of his home kicked in. Sheriff’s deputies found tire tracks leading to the door.
Police believe the burglars broke into the house in the 7300 block of Trails sometime between 7 a.m. and 10 p.m.
“They backed a getaway vehicle to the back door, either a small pickup or small car,” Reagan said.
The victim told police a snowboard, camcorder, pellet gun, skis, television, compact disc player and jewelry were taken. The items are valued at approximately $5,500.
Sometime between 9 a.m. and 9:30 p.m. March 17 someone kicked in the front door of a home in the 100 block of North Christenson Road.
Items valued at over $800 were taken, including a TV set, VCR and gold ring.
Almost $8,000 worth of items was taken March 17 sometime between 8 a.m. and 2:30 p.m.
The victim returned home and found the door of his home, in the 9700 block of W. Gardner, kicked in.
A computer system, espresso machine, 140 CDs, TV set, VCR, stereo system, small satellite dish and 16 pairs of mens jeans were taken.
Someone broke into a home in the 4400 block of South Assembly, took $45, a TV set and VCR but left behind a crop of fingerprints.
The break-in occurred sometime between 2:20 p.m. March 17 and 1 a.m. March 18. The suspect unscrewed the home’s outside motion-detector lights. The entire house was ransacked.
Neighbors told police they hadn’t seen anything.
, DataTimes