Boy Tries Robbery To Get Ski Trip Money

An 11-year-old boy said he attempted to rob a convenience store clerk at gunpoint because he needed to come up with $5 to go on a school ski trip.

The boy, Travis Wayne Stewart, told The Oregonian he was short of the $31 he needed for a Saturday ski trip with other students from Gaffney Lane Elementary School.

Asked why he attempted to rob the store Thursday, he said, “I thought I could get away with it.”

Store clerk Jae Yeon Cho, 21, said he saw Travis and another boy hanging around outside the Get & Go Grocery, trying on ski masks, before Travis entered with a BB gun.

“But his eyes - he was totally concentrated. He was serious.”Cho said the boy told him, “Give

me all your money.” But Cho refused, instead saying something like, “What do you think you’re doing?”

After staring at Cho a few seconds, the boy ran out of the store. Cho and a customer gave chase and caught Travis a few blocks away.

Police arrested Travis for investigation of second-degree robbery before releasing him to his family. Another boy who had waited outside was cited and released.

If convicted, Travis could be sen tenced to five years in a residential treatment center.