Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, February 17, 1995 TAG: 9502170031
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: STEPHEN FOSTER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
In a span of just over three weeks, three stores have been robbed at gunpoint.
"Basically we're scared," said a somber Melissa Shealor, who manages the Deli Mart beside Wades on North Main Street. "You don't know who they are. If you did you could do something about it.
"All we're doing is holding our breath."
And police are asking for help. No leads have produced results yet, and they think three different men are out there wielding weapons to get the cash they want.
So far no one's been injured, but "we're afraid our luck's going to run out," said Blacksburg Lt. B.E. Bradbery.
Wednesday, TCBY - with its facade of plate glass windows, located on the Main Street thoroughfare beside a bustling Taco Bell - was robbed. Two days before, it was the Revco drug store on South Main Street, and three weeks before that it was Domino's Pizza - just across the street from Shealor's store.
In all three cases, a man entered the store, flashed a gun, and asked for money. After getting it, he fled on foot. Witnesses' descriptions indicate a different person was involved in each robbery.
"They seem to be patient," waiting for customers and most of the employees to leave or for the store to close, Bradbery said of the robbers. He downplayed the spate of robberies - "that's not uncommon in places other than Blacksburg" - but admitted the robbers have gotten bolder. "Usually these things happen in out-of-the-way places," he said. TCBY lies in the "right dead center of town."
In all of 1994, six robberies occurred in town; in 1993, there were three. "Maybe we're just getting our share," Bradbery said.
Police say they have no reason to think the robberies are connected, although a detective asked the TCBY employee Thursday if she had seen either of the two men depicted in composite sketches from the previous robberies hanging around the store before she was robbed Wednesday.
The employee described a quickly evolving, terrifying scene as she was closing the store around 9 p.m. The newspaper is not using her name because the robber remains at large.
"The first thing I thought was, it was a joke," when the man came in the store and pointed a gun at her, she said. When she realized it wasn't, "I just handed him the money like he was a regular customer."
The robber, who never touched her, told her to lie on the floor. When she lay down, still facing him, he told her to turn around. That was the moment she was most afraid he might shoot.
He didn't. After he left, the employee stayed on the floor about 20 seconds, then got up and called the police. She spent the next three hours talking to police and helping draw a composite sketch.
"This guy was brazen," she said. "This is one of the safest areas in town. I mean, it's on Main Street."
From now on, at least two employees will close the store always, she said.
Cashiers elsewhere in Blacksburg are looking out their windows more often these days, talking to each other and hoping the police catch suspects soon.
"It's kind of scary around here," said Barbara Hinkley, a clerk at the Food Time across from Backstreet's Pizza. Wednesday, her supervisor left word for employees to take extra precautions such as dropping money in the safe and staying aware - and also not to fight a robbery.
"They must be desperate," said G.L. Jennelle, assistant manager at the Alcohol Beverage Control store in Gables Shopping Center. Open since 1968, the store's never been robbed, he said. But, "there's always a first time."
Employees are aware of the possibility of robbery, he said, generally leaving the store in groups, seldom closing alone. In the past there have been times when the parking lot lighting failed to illuminate the area well, but that's not the case now.
Still, said fellow employee K.R. Lancaster, "It gives you a damn uncomfortable feeling."
Generally, a robbery elicits a short police news release faxed to the media. But Thursday's report was accompanied with a list of precautions for merchants.
Among them:
Never close alone.
Be aware of customers who enter around closing time and be sure they have left.
Make eye contact and speak with all customers.
Watch for people loitering around the store, sitting in cars in the parking lot, or driving by several times, and report such activity to the police.
If a robbery occurs, remain calm, follow the robber's instructions, and notice the suspect's description, vehicle and direction of travel if possible. Once the robber leaves, lock the doors, call 911 and don't touch anything the robber may have touched.
by CNB