THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, August 3, 1994 TAG: 9408030434
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MIKE MATHER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Medium: 58 lines
A man who robbed a tanning salon with a butcher knife Sunday apparently was so dissatisfied with the take that he returned to the same shopping center two hours later and robbed two more businesses.
Two officers caught the alleged robber in an apartment complex near the shopping center, police spokesman Mike Carey said. Police released details of the alleged spree Tuesday.
Carey said Gerry U. Self, 30, of the 1600 block of Dylan Drive, is responsible for at least nine armed robberies that police have investigated since June 3. Self is being held in the city jail on $100,000 bail for nine robbery charges.
Three times, police said, Self robbed two or more businesses in one day.
Carey said that around noon on Sunday, Self robbed a Tan-Fast-Tik salon in the Rosemont Marketplace shopping center on Pleasant Valley Road after threatening workers with a butcher knife. Self had allegedly hit the same store in the same manner just two weeks earlier, at almost the same time.
Two hours later, as police were investigating the first incident, Self allegedly returned to Rosemont Marketplace with the butcher knife and robbed a dollar-merchandise store. Then, police said, Self, still carrying the knife, robbed a neighboring business, Little Caesar's Pizza.
Police dispatchers broadcast a description of the suspect in between robberies, and two officers spotted someone matching the description near the shopping center, in Bridle Creek Apartments.
Officers Douglas E. Evins and Jack K. Self, no relation to the suspect, were checking behind the shopping center when they saw Self, who ran..
Carey said detectives cleared five other business robberies, and the robbery of a person in a business, after investigating Self. ILLUSTRATION: Graphic
THE ROBBERIES
Police said Gerry U. Self is responsible for these robberies:
July 31 - Little Caesar's Pizza, Tan-Fast-Tik tanning salon and a
dollar-merchandise store in Rosemont Marketplace.
July 15 - Bon Air Cleaners, in the 5600 block of Princess Anne
Road; and the Tan-Fast-Tik salon in the Rosemont Marketplace.
July 4 - A Texaco gas station in the 5200 block of Princess Anne
Road; and a citizen coming out of a restaurant bathroom in the same
block.
June 26 - Unimart gas station in the 5600 block of Princess Anne
Road.
June 3 - J.B.'s New York Experience jewelry store in the 800
block of Baker Road.
KEYWORDS: ROBBERIES ARREST by CNB