Robbers pistol-whip two clerks during holdups
BY ZACK STOYCOFF World Staff Writer
Saturday, August 18, 2012
8/18/12 at 5:14 AM
Clerks at two convenience stores were pistol-whipped by men who robbed the stores early Friday, Tulsa police said.
Three men roughed up the clerks and took cash from the Kum & Go stores at 14495 E. 51st St. and 11296 E. 71st St. in robberies about 30 minutes apart, police said.
In the first, the group grabbed a clerk who tried to flee when he saw one of the men carrying a revolver as they entered the 51st Street store about 12:30 a.m., police said. The men pulled him back and forced him to open the register, and one of them hit him in the head with the gun, police said.
The clerk jumped across the counter and ran to a field across the street, where he waited until the group left. He then ran to a neighborhood and pounded on the door of an off-duty police officer's house, where an unmarked patrol car was parked, police said.
The robbery had already been reported by a customer who found the store empty and in disarray, police said.
Security video revealed that the same group forced a clerk at the other store to open the cash register about 1 a.m. before they pushed her into a back room and hit her in the head with a gun, police said.
The woman hit the panic button, which alerted police, about 1:20 a.m., police said. She reportedly said she had been in the back room for about 20 minutes waiting for the robbers to leave.
Complete descriptions of the robbers were unavailable, but in both holdups, they fled in a silver or gray Mercury Grand Marquis. Anyone with information about them is asked to contact Crime Stoppers at 918-596-COPS or tulsa world.com/crimestoppers
Zack Stoycoff 918-581-8486
zack.stoycoff@tulsaworld.com
