Robber wields knife in City
Champlain Farms hit by armed man
By LEON THOMPSON
Messenger Staff Writer
Feb 17, 2010 Edition Of The St. Albans Messenger ST. ALBANS CITY — Police here are searching for a man who committed an armed robbery Tuesday at the Champlain Farms store on South Main Street.
City and Vermont State Police officers responded to the store at 6:33 p.m., soon after a male brandished a hunting knife with a 6-to-8-inch blade and demanded money from a female cashier.
Due to an ongoing investigation, City Police Chief Gary Taylor would not disclose how much money the robber nabbed.
"It's been a while since we had a quick-stop holdup," Taylor said this morning.
The store employee said the suspect wore a dark scarf over his face, a blue-green jacket, a dark hoodie, sweatshirt, dark pants, and dark shoes with white soles. He stood about 5 feet, 8 inches tall, and weighed between 175 to 180 pounds.
The employee was uninjured. There were no customers inside the store when the robbery occurred.
After the robbery, the suspect fled north on foot. A sent-tracking K-9 unit from the Grand Isle Sheriff's Department responded to the scene and followed a trail on Main Street, but then lost it.
City police are reviewing footage from a video surveillance camera from inside the store. The entire incident lasted less than a minute.
A similar incident transpired at the St. Albans City Champlain Farms in October 2008, when a Richford woman allegedly committed assault and robbery at the store, during the overnight hours. Jennifer Landry was arrested and held on $2,000 bail for her alleged involvement in that incident. Anyone with more information should call St. Albans City Police at 802-524-2166, or the Vermont State Police barracks in St. Albans at 802-524-5993.