Police
investigate
robbery
By CARL E. HARTDEGEN
Staff Writer
WESTFIELD – City police are seeking a suspect in a daytime armed robbery of an Elm Street convenience store Wednesday afternoon and a few hours later made three arrests in an unrelated armed robbery.
Police report that at 1:50 p.m. a caller said he had been asked to call police by the clerk at the Getty Mart at 278 Elm St. who said she had been robbed.
Officers Jeffrey Baillargeon and Michael Bradley arrived within a minute and were soon joined by Sgt. Edward Murphy and several other officers.
The clerk told the officers that the robber, described as a white male in his early 20s, five foot six inches tall and wearing a black coat and hat, came behind the counter and threatened her with a sharp instrument, demanding the money in the register.
The clerk said the man produced a bag and demanded she put the cash from the register in it.
Before he left, the robber also demanded the victim’s cell phone and the clerk said that after she gave him her phone he fled toward the nearby railroad tracks.
The clerk found a worker outside the store who she asked to call police.
The police report that outer clothing which matched what the clerk said the robber was wearing was found on the railroad right-of-way.
A K-9 unit for a nearby community responded to assist with the search and the dog established a track but detectives report the dog lost the scent in the Arnold Street area.
Police report that security video from the store is under review.
Anybody who may have seen a man on the railroad tracks in the area yesterday afternoon, or who has any other information about the robbery, is asked to call police at 562-5411 or the detective bureau at 572-6400.
