Police searching for armed robber
Rowynn Ricks
Police are still looking for a suspect who robbed a Woodward convenience store at gunpoint early Tuesday morning.
The suspect was believed to have used a shotgun to threaten the night clerk at the Honk-N-Holler and obtain $300 in cash from one of the store's registers around 4:47 a.m. Tuesday, said Woodward Det. Lt. Chuck Wheeler.
Wheeler said the police detectives are still reviewing video surveillance of the incident and aren't ready to release any details about the subject.
One of the store's managers Krystal Adams said there aren't many details known about the suspect, who she said was wearing a ski mask and a long sleeve shirt during the robbery.
Adams said the video surveillance shows a vehicle drive up and park near the dumpsters around the side of the store. A suspect then appears to exit the vehicle before walking around to the front of the store, she said.
After entering the store, she said the suspect "held our guy at gunpoint," while asking for money.
It took the night clerk a few moments to get the register opened, Adams said, noting that the suspect then appeared to get scared and "went to turn away."
But then hearing the register drawer open, the suspect turned back around and demanded the money.
"And then he ran off," she said.
Adams said the suspect appeared almost as frightened as the night clerk. "He seemed very nervous," she said. She said the night clerk "was very shaken up" by the incident, but had "handled it very well."
According to store policy, Adams said that employees are told "whatever they (robbers) want, surrender it to them and then as soon as it has happened and they have left, lock the door and wait for the police to come."
Ironically, about 15 minutes before the robbery, Adams said, "we pretty much had all the officers here on their coffee break.
"Then they get called out somewhere else," she said, noting that it was "maybe a minute later" when the suspect car pulled up.
"It's almost like it was set up," Adams said.
In fact, at 4:33 a.m. the police were called out to check out a suspicious person who appeared to be carrying a gun that had been spotted by a clerk at the Jiffy Trip at 25th Street and Oklahoma Avenue, according to police records.
"The clerk at Jiffy Trip saw an individual matching the suspect's description and when the suspect saw the clerk had seen him, he took off running," Wheeler said, noting that is when officers were called out to the Jiffy Trip location, which is where they were when the Honk-N-Holler robbery went down.
Adams has only worked at Honk-N-Holler for the past three months, but she said that as far as she knows "we've never had anything like this happen before."
And even though the whole experience was "just scary," she noted that it could have been much worse.
For instance, she said that the store could have lost more money, but the night clerk "had just done our shift report and dropped most of the money into the safe."
But more importantly, she said, and Wheeler confirmed, that no shots had been fired during the incident.
Anyone who might have more information about the suspect in the robbery is encouraged to contact the Woodward Police Department through it's main number at (580) 254-8518 or through the Crime Stoppers line at (580) 254-8532.
I am afraid that this will get worse as the times get worse around here with the layoffs and no jobs.
It really doesn't sound like a set-up to me. It sounds like the robber was quaking in his boots, and easily scared away to another location.
Still, people with guns who are nervous are probably more dangerous, since they will be spooked easily.
I sure worry about the folks working the convenience stores in the evenings. Things are not going to be safe for them while the economy is suffering.