Fifth armed robbery linked to same suspect in Petaluma

A wave of armed robberies in Petaluma by a masked man who claims to have a gun continued Tuesday with the holdup of a convenience store, the fifth robbery in the past week linked to the same suspect.

“They’re all very quick. He walks in, says, ‘I have a gun; give me your money,’ gets the money and leaves,” said Petaluma Sgt. Ed Crosby, who is supervising the investigations.

Tuesday’s robbery, at 12:20 a.m., was at the downtown 7-Eleven store on Washington Street. Of the four previous incidents, two were at convenience stories, one involved a gas station and a third took place at a grocery pharmacy.

The man, who covered his head with a mask and wore gloves, lifted his shirt to show a clerk the butt of a gun. The clerk handed him some cash and the robber left.

Crosby called it an unusual crime wave.

“We don’t usually get a string of robberies in this town, let alone in such a short time frame,” the sergeant said Tuesday. “We are supposing that it’s all the same person. We can’t be certain. But the behavior, it suggests it’s the same person.”

The robberies began on March 25. The robber struck hard that Wednesday, with three separate crimes.

Police were first called at about 5:30 a.m. to the Quik Stop on East Washington Street. Less than an hour later, they responded to a report of a man robbing a Valero gas station on Baywood Drive a few blocks from the Quik Stop.

The third robbery of the day was at 1:45 p.m. at the pharmacy inside the Lucky grocery at the Gateway Shopping Center on Lakeville Street.

On Monday, it was a midnight run with a 12:45 a.m. hold up at the 7-Eleven store on Petaluma Boulevard South on the edge of downtown and then Tuesday’s crime about 24 hours later in another part of downtown.

In four of the five robberies the man has demanded cash and gotten it. Crosby wouldn’t say how much.

But at the pharmacy, the robber demanded two bottles of cough syrup with codeine.

He was given two bottles of cough syrup but it wasn’t clear whether the bottles contained codeine, Crosby said.

Detectives have been considering these armed robberies, as in the first four the man has been telling clerks he has a gun.

“He’s been saying he has one but no one has actually seen one, none have been displayed,” the sergeant said. “In the latest one, however, he lifted up his shirt. The clerk believes what they saw was the butt of a gun. We can’t be positive if it was real or not.”

In all but the pharmacy robbery the man covered his face with a mask. At the pharmacy, he wore no mask but pulled his hat down low and his shirt or jacket up over part of his face, Crosby said.

Police said there is a difference with Tuesday’s robbery as there was a customer inside the convenience store.

The male customer ran from the store when he saw the masked man walk in and detectives are hoping the person will come forward in case he can offer any details.

Police are asking anyone with knowledge of the robberies to contact detectives at 778-4372.

You can reach Staff Writer Randi Rossmann at ?521-5412 or randi.?rossmann@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter ?@rossmannreport.