ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, March 4, 1997 TAG: 9703040076
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DIANE STRUZZI
A convenience store clerk's mistake and a brazen cab driver foiled an armed robber early Saturday in Southeast Roanoke.
At about 1:50 a.m. a man dressed in a dark, hooded raincoat walked to the register at the 7- Eleven Food Store at 2118 Bennington Street S.E.
The man pointed a semiautomatic handgun at the clerk and demanded money, police said. The clerk hit the wrong key on the cash register and the machine would not open. The man threatened the clerk and fled after two cars drove into the store's parking lot.
At about the same time, a Yellow Cab Co. driver who was on a pay phone in the parking lot next door saw a man in a dark, hooded raincoat walk toward him, police said. The man demanded that the cab driver give up his money. The cab driver pushed the man, got into his cab and drove away as the man tried to open the cab door.
The would-be robber did not get any money from the store or the cab driver. He was seen running into the Jamestown Place Housing Development.
In another incident on Saturday, a 14-year-old boy was robbed at gunpoint in a Southwest Roanoke park.
At about 4:30 p.m. a 14-year-old was on the 2100 block of Buford Avenue, near the Norwich Recreational Center. A teen-age boy approached the 14-year-old, pulled out a pistol and demanded money. The 14-year-old boy gave the robber $20 and saw the robber leave in a maroon car.|
LENGTH: Short : 35 linesby CNB