THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, July 13, 1995 TAG: 9507130374
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MIKE MATHER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Short : 48 lines
The call to the police communications center was strangely prophetic.
``The 7-Eleven on Virginia Beach Boulevard is about to be robbed,'' the caller said.
``OK,'' the dispatcher answered. ``How do you know this?''
``I was paying for my newspaper and the cashier wrote me a letter saying, `Will you call the police? I'm about to be robbed.' ''
The cashier recognized one of the customers in the convenience store in the 5400 block of Virginia Beach Blvd. It was a man who had robbed her before, she said.
She passed a note to a patron who was leaving. He called police.
On Wednesday, police said that 7-Eleven wasn't the only one the suspect targeted.
Detectives have charged Samuel Anthony Miles, a 32-year-old Norfolk resident, with robbing eight convenience stores and stealing from two others during a spree that began on June 14 and ended when the citizen with the note called police July 7 from the pay phone outside the store.
The dispatcher sent Officer Tammy Summerall to the 7-Eleven. Summerall confronted the suspect, who assaulted her, police spokesman Mike Carey said.
Four backup officers arrived and, after a struggle, arrested Miles, Carey said. Summerall was treated and released at a hospital.
Miles was linked to the other robberies, in part, because of the robber's penchant for taking Newport cigarettes and alcohol.
As he left the stores, he told the clerks he had a gun and robbed them, Carey said.
Miles is in the city jail without bond.
Police have not been able to locate the customer who called police at the clerk's request. Carey said investigators want to speak with him, and ask anyone with information about the caller to phone Detective Pat Lewis at 427-4101. ILLUSTRATION: Detectives have charged Samuel Anthony Miles, a 32-year-old
Norfolk resident, with robbing eight convience stores and stealing
from two others.
KEYWORDS: ARREST CONVIENCE STORE ROBBERY by CNB