Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, October 21, 1993 TAG: 9310210252
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RON BROWN and TODD JACKSON STAFF WRITERS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Her car doors are locked constantly as she travels the city.
A month ago, she was happy on her job, which she'd held for four years.
Now, she's quitting, afraid that she'll be robbed and threatened with rape a third time.
Police said the woman is only one of several victims of a man who has robbed Roanoke Valley retail businesses where women work alone as daylight clerks.
Police confirmed that a man matching the same description is the prime suspect in at least four robberies of stores in Salem and Roanoke in the past six weeks.
All the stores were being tended by women clerks. All were alone.
"His voice just gives me the creeps now," said the woman, who agreed to talk only if her name was not used. "I'm afraid he'll come back and see me again."
Late last month, the man walked into the store where she worked and demanded money. After emptying a cash box, he walked to the door and locked it.
He forced her to a back room, where he told her he wanted sex. When she refused, he pulled at her clothing and fondled her.
"Maybe if I'm not here, he won't come back," the woman said. "I won't go anywhere I have to deal with the public. I'll just go and get an office job."
Maybe in an office, she won't have to worry about men toting guns walking in on her.
Tuesday afternoon, he came back. She noticed the man walking outside the store, appearing to scope out the business to see if she was alone.
When he walked in the front door, she spoke to him as she usually greets customers.
"How you doing?" she asked him.
"Hi," he said in a high-pitched voice.
The woman, 22, said the bandit walked to a back room and appeared to be checking if anyone else was in the store.
He then walked over to the counter where she was standing and poked a large, blue-steel pistol over a swinging door leading to the area behind the counter.
"Get in the back," he ordered. She was too scared to move.
The man then pulled back the swinging door and walked toward her, demanding that she open the register. Then he told her to pull up the clamps holding down the paper money, so he wouldn't leave fingerprints behind.
As he grabbed a handful of cash from the drawer, he ordered her to the back room. Fearing she would be raped, she told him someone was in the back.
"Get to the back," he commanded. "And call the police."
Police said his insistence that the clerks call police is one of the key links between the robberies that have occurred.
He has often given the victims a time limit on how long they must wait before making that call.
The woman said she hopes that time is running out on the bandit.
"It just makes me mad that he hasn't been caught," she said.
by CNB