News - Local/State

Wednesday, Aug. 20, 2008

Cash register stolen in knifepoint robbery

A man posing as a customer pulled a knife before jumping onto a Rock Hill convenience store counter and snatching a cash register, police said.

No one has been arrested in the incident, said Capt. Jerry Hoffman of York County Sheriff’s Office.

A 57-year-old male employee and a female clerk were not hurt during the incident at about 3:30 a.m. Tuesday at Crenco Exxon, 2436 Mount Holly Road in Rock Hill.

Store surveillance video shows a man driving a truck into the parking lot of the business around 3:34 a.m. After the driver got out of the truck and walked into the store, a passenger in the truck moved behind the wheel, according to a sheriff’s office incident report.

“There was another customer in the store so he (the man) went to the bathroom to kill some time until the store was empty,” store manager Cathy Harris said.

Video shows the man left the bathroom and stopped by the candy aisle, the report notes. Then the man, holding a pack of Spree candy, approached the front counter, where the 57-year-old male clerk waited, Harris said.

“He greeted the man,” Harris said about the clerk. The man then “laid something on the counter, and then he pulled the knife out.”

The man, armed with a kitchen knife, demanded that the clerk open the cash register, but the clerk could not get the register to open. Video shows the man became frustrated and jumped onto the counter. Then he jerked the register off the counter and ran, according to the report.

Police said the man took the register and $200 before leaving in a white truck that was later identified as a white Ford Ranger. It was not known if the money was in the register.

Officials are looking for a white man who wore a camouflage baseball hat with an orange-colored log, a black hooded sweatshirt that had Aeropostale written on it in white lettering, green shirt and blue jeans, according to the report and a Web site for the sheriff’s office.

The man, whose age ranges from 19 to 22, weighs about 165 pounds and stands about five feet, 10 inches tall, the report notes. Anyone with information about the armed robbery should call the York County Sheriff’s Office at 628-3059 or CrimeStoppers of York County at (877) 409-4321.