Local store robbed at gunpoint
By Nick Hiltunen
Published in News on January 26, 2010 1:46 PM
An undetermined amount of cash was stolen and no one was injured in an armed robbery involving three masked men at a Dollar General store on U.S. 13 Monday night, authorities said.
Three masked men, two wearing ski masks and one wearing a bandanna, entered the store about 8:10 p.m., Wayne County Sheriff Carey Winders and Capt. Tom Effler said.
The men used a weapon described as a "long gun," but further description of the weapon and the assailants was not available this morning, Effler said.
He said the robbery appears to be unrelated to any other incidents occurring at Dollar General stores, including a Jan. 13 incident in which Dennis James Martin Jr., 29, was arrested for two counts of common law robbery.
"We have no reason to believe at this time that this particular robbery is connected to anything else," Effler said.
He added that the three men entered the store and "accosted one employee (and) forced her to go to the (office) window)."
Once at the office window, the three men forced them to open the safe and the register, at which point they took an undetermined amount of cash.
The men fled on foot and a Goldsboro police dog was used in an effort to try to track the men, to no avail, the captain said.
The investigation is continuing.
The Sheriff's Office is also investigating a suspicious fire in Pikeville, reported around 9 p.m. at an abandoned residence at 876 Mount Carmel Church Road, Effler said.
Effler said the Sheriff's Office has no reason to believe that fire is connected to other fires under investigation, which were reported on Millers Chapel and North Beston roads earlier this month.