An attempted armed robbery at the Country Store in Santiago Township went awry when the clerk on duty refused to open the cash drawer when confronted by a masked gunman at around 11 a.m. last Friday morning.
According to store manager Kathy Woolard, who was not working at the time of the incident, a masked man entered from the back of the store and advanced on the cash register area and demanded money from the clerk on duty. Even though the man was armed with a black handgun, the clerk refused to open the register and hand over the money inside.
At that point the robber’s cell phone or pager was activated, Woolard said she was told, which may have been an accomplice in a waiting car alerting him that a customer had just pulled into the station. The man then fled through the back door and got into a waiting car, which the Sherburne County Sheriff’s Dept. report identified as a “small maroon passenger car” driven by another unidentified male suspect.
The suspect was described as an “adult white male” wearing blue jeans, a dark long-sleeved shirt and gloves. His face was covered with a bandana, and he was wearing a stocking cap which left “only his eyes visible”, Woolard said.
Sherburne County deputies and other area law enforcement agencies joined in the search for the suspects, according to the Sheriff’s Dept. report, and the Sherburne County Criminal Investigative Division responded to the call and processed the crime scene. The station has security cameras that monitor the interior of the store and the fuel pump area outside, and deputies took copies of the recordings to assist in their investigation, Woolard said.
She also commented that the store seemed to be an odd choice for a robbery target, given that the restaurant next door was open for the lunch trade, and the gas station is normally very busy during the day, especially on a Friday. A large number of her customers now use debit cards for their transactions, resulting in a “very small amount” of money being kept in the cash register at any time. She also advised that, in case of future incidents, clerks should hand over the money and not run the risk of being harmed in the course of a robbery.
There were no injuries reported in the incident, though the clerk on duty has give notice that she will be seeking other employment, Woolard said. The matter remains under investigation.
