COLUMBUS – Columbus police say they believe the same woman has robbed an Eastmoor cell phone store three times in the last two weeks, spraying clerks with mace during each holdup.
The most recent incident occurred on Wednesday at 1:20 p.m. when the woman walked directly behind the counter at the Metro PCS store at 3422 E. Main Street and opened the cash drawer, Det. Brad Stone of the Robbery Unit said.
An employee confronted the woman and struggled with her but the suspect took an unknown amount of money out of the drawer and began to leave the store. Stone says the employee stood at the door and tried to keep the suspect from leaving but the suspect sprayed the worker with mace and ran north on S. Napoleon Avenue.
Stone says investigators believe the same suspect sprayed an employee at the same store on Nov. 26 and again on Dec. 4, removing money from the cash drawer on the first occasion but leaving empty-handed on the second.
All three incidents were captured by security video cameras.
The suspect was described as black, between 18 and 23 years of age, 5’5, weighing 135 to 145 lbs. with a light complexion, short unkempt orange/reddish hair, and was wearing grey sweat pants, a grey hooded sweatshirt, and red-and-white Air Jordan tennis shoes during the Dec. 11 robbery, Stone said.
Anyone with information on the robberies or the identity of the suspect is asked to contact Columbus Police Robbery Unit at 614-645-4665 or phone in an anonymous tip to Central Ohio Crime Stoppers at 614-461-TIPS (8477).