ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Sunday, March 31, 1996                 TAG: 9604010056
SECTION: VIRGINIA                 PAGE: C-4  EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: LAURENCE HAMMACK

CONVENIENCE STORES ROBBED

Three convenience stores were robbed within several hours early Saturday morning in Roanoke and Roanoke County, and police said two of the stores may have been held up by the same suspect.

Shortly after midnight, a man entered the 7-Eleven store on the 2400 block of Grandin Road and told the clerk it was a holdup. There was no indication that the man was armed, Roanoke police said. He fled with a small amount of cash.

At 3:48 a.m., a man fitting the same description robbed the Uni-Mart at Oak Grove Plaza on Electric Road. The robber brandished a knife at the clerk before demanding money, said Detective Rick Moorer of the Roanoke County Police Department. The man fled on foot with a small amount of cash, Moorer said.

Later in the morning, a third convenience store was robbed on Orange Avenue in Roanoke, but authorities did not believe that holdup was related to the other two.

No one was injured in the robberies. There have been no arrests.

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