Phoenix police looking for help to solve robbery cases
Mar 27, 2017, 5:00 AM
What was this guy thinking?
That may be the question detectives are asking about a man who went into the Circle K near 36th Avenue and Buckeye Road late Tuesday, Dec. 20, 2016. He bought a hot dog and a beer and sat at the customer counter to eat his late night snack.
“And then suddenly he pulls out a hand gun and points it at the clerk,” Phoenix police detective Kimberly Neis said.
The man demanded three lottery scratch tickets. That’s it. Then he took off. The clerk wasn’t hurt.
“The key here is that he had very distinctive clothing with the word CALI on the front of the hat,” Neis said. “He also had a distinctive tattoo on the right forearm which possibly is a skull with a headdress.”
Our next case is a crime spree by one guy who hits the same place over and over again: The Circle K near 7th Avenue and Bell Road.
“It’s extremely bold,” Neis said. “He just walks in like he owns the place, walks behind the counter, grabs several cartons of cigarettes then walks out like they’re his.”
He’s done this multiple times but the first time police know he hit was on Dec. 17, 2016.
This is not just a theft. Detective Neis said he literally crosses the line from shoplifting to commercial burglary when he enters an employees-only area by going behind the counter.