REISTERSTOWN, Md. — The robber appears to favor targeting businesses along the Reisterstown Road corridor, and if you work at night behind a cash register, you're worried you might be next.
"Yes, I'm real concerned that somebody's going to come in there with a gun," said Jenny Cardoso, a cashier at a gas station in Reisterstown.
"I'm afraid,” added her co-worker, Billy Jones. “I work here all by myself 14 hours a day at Shell."
"We need to have more police patrol up here,” said Cardoso. “We really do."
On Monday evening, the same man robbed a cashier at gunpoint at a Royal Farms store on Hanover Pike, just 24 hours before County Councilman Izzy Patoka met with the Franklin Police Community Relations Council to discuss the widespread robberies in his district.
"There's been seven that I'm aware of, seven robberies: two in Pikesville, a Shoppers and a Subway, in Owings Mills and Reisterstown, unfortunately two Royal Farms and a Rite Aid that were robbed," said Patoka (D-District 2).
Police are reviewing surveillance video of the robberies, and they've already seen enough to know this is the work of a single criminal.
"Since June the 5th, there's been one suspect,” said Cpl. Shawn Vinson of the Baltimore County Police Department. “He's responsible for this string of robberies. We've been investigating this and looking into it. It appears this suspect... He targets either convenience stores or, in one instance, a grocery store. He goes in there and threatens someone with a handgun and removes money and flees out of there."
Police say the robber generally strikes between 8 p.m. and midnight, and workers say they fear a lack of police presence in the area.
"We called 911 two weeks ago, and it took them over 30 minutes to get here, because we had an issue with some customers, and they literally assaulted me, and it still took them over 30 minutes to get here," said Cardoso.
Police suspect the same robber may have struck a Dunkin Donuts just inside the city line last night in a crime spree which has spread across Pikesville, Reisterstown and Randallstown.
