Another store hit by bandit

By DUANE SHERRILL / Staff Reporter for the Southern Standard

Police Lt. John Hollandsworth, joined by Officer Rusty Woodlee, radios a description of the masked gunman who robbed Pump n’ Pay Market Saturday morning. (Duane Sherrill photo)

Police may have a serial robber on their hands after a second convenience store was robbed Saturday morning, this time with the masked bandit hitting Pump n’ Pay.

The robbery comes on the heels of the heist Thursday morning of Pit Stop North. Both stores are located on New Smithville Highway, about one mile apart and both stores were hit slightly after 11 a.m. The suspect, in both cases has been described as a tall, white, middle-aged male.

According to McMinnville Police Investigator Nichole Hutchins, the Saturday morning robber walked into Pump n’ Pay brandishing a handgun and demanded the lone female clerk hand over the store’s cash. As was the case Thursday, there were no customers in the store; however, there was reportedly a person outside pumping gas at the time of yesterday’s robbery. The clerk was uninjured.

After getting an undisclosed amount of cash from the clerk, the bandit dashed around the side of the building at which time he reportedly pulled off his mask, giving a pair of witnesses next door at the Mexican grocery store a good look at his face.

Upon seeing the witnesses, the suspect reportedly brandished his gun in a threatening manner, causing the witnesses to back away. The robber then got into a vehicle parked in back of the grocery store and sped away. He was last seen traveling in the direction of Smithville on New Smithville Highway.

“From what we’ve gathered so far, it sounds like this is the same individual who robbed Pit Stop North,” Hutchins said. “The crimes were also committed about the same times, between 11 a.m. and noon on the same road.”

Investigators are unsure why the bandit is hitting in broad daylight on a heavily traveled section of road. They suspect he wore a mask Saturday because he feared the store might have a surveillance camera, something which was not a concern in Thursday’s robbery when he committed his crime without a mask.