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 The Vietnam Memorial Traveling Wall passes through downtown Wapakoneta Wednesday, September 1. Staff photo/William Laney By CARLA MEYER
Staff Writer
For 45 minutes, the roar of motorcycles could be heard passing under an American flag hanging from two ladder trucks. For 45 minutes, area residents gathered in the shadow of the Auglaize County Courthouse and Wapakoneta Fire Station waved and clapped as motorcyclists rode by.
The smiles and waves turned into clapping and cheers as the Vietnam Memorial Traveling Wall passed down Willipie Street on its way to Custenborder Field in Sidney where it was greeted by a field of American flags.
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Robber holds clerk at gunpoint |
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Thursday, 08 October 2009 |
By KAREN CAMPBELL
Assistant Managing Editor
An armed robber made off with a substantial amount of cash from RG Sound and Communications on Wednesday afternoon after forcing the lone clerk into a back storage room at gunpoint.
Wapakoneta Police were called to the scene when the clerk was able to make a brief 911 call while the suspect was up front before the man heard the dispatcher answer and destroyed the clerk’s personal cell phone, which he used to make the call.
Officers arrived at the business, located at 1321 Bellefontaine St., within four minutes of the time the 911 call was placed at 3:21 p.m. The clerk had enough time during his call to tell dispatchers that he was just robbed, according to the police log.
Lt. Greg Lowry said the unknown male walked in the front door of RG Sound from the west at about 3 p.m. and after being approached by the clerk said he was there to pay a bill.
“Before he gave his last name, which was requested by the clerk, the suspect said, ‘Give me the money. I have a gun,’” Lowry told the Wapakoneta Daily News this morning.
“He jumped in behind the guy and the clerk felt something in his back that he assumed was a gun,” he said. “He warned him that ‘If you do anything, neither of us will be leaving today.’”
With the gun to him, the suspect led the male clerk to a back storage room where he made him lay face down while he rummaged through high priced cell phones.
“The clerk told him it would be stupid to take those because they could be electronically tracked and that obviously upset him as he straddled him and shoved a gun or whatever he had into his back again and told him he would do whatever he wanted,” Lowry said.
The suspect then went back up to the front of the store and that’s when the clerk was able to make a call to 911.
“The suspect heard him and kicked the cell phone out of his hand and stomped on it, destroying it,” Lowry said. “He told the clerk not to ever do that again.”
He used a knife to cut the power cord to the video, shocking himself and possibly burning something inside the machine which destroyed any video footage there was, Lowry said.
“He grabbed money out of the cash drawer and fled on foot but we don’t know in what direction,” Lowry said.
The lieutenant said the man was believed to have a getaway vehicle parked elsewhere near the scene. They are hoping that Walmart surveillance cameras may have captured something from their parking lot footage.
The white male was described as in his late 20s or early 30s with about three-days beard growth on his face and short dark hair. He was of average height, thin build, and wearing a dark ball cap and a dark T-shirt with some kind of print on the front. He also was wearing a long-sleeved button down shirt over the T-shirt.
“I haven’t heard about anything else like this at other locations, but I think he had been watching,” Lowry said. “There were no other customers in the store. He made sure nobody was around.”
He said law enforcement K-9s could not assist in tracking the suspect as there were too many people around the scene to pick up a good trail.
“Nobody saw anything,” Lowry said. “It was one of those things where nobody pays attention. He wasn’t wearing a mask. He was wearing plain clothes and didn’t draw attention.”
Without video footage of the robber, Lowry said he can’t get stills out onto the Internet to help in tracking the man and the clerk didn’t get a real good look at his face.
“Hopefully maybe with the help of BCI (the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation) we will be able to pull something from the video,” Lowry said. “Hopefully it wasn’t completely destroyed when the wire was cut.”
He thinks they also may have a good trace through DNA with evidence collected at the scene, but it could be six months before BCI may get to examining it.
The Auglaize County Sheriff’s Office assisted with the investigation at the scene.
The last armed robbery in Wapakoneta was reported just more than a year ago, Sept. 30, 2008, at Advance America Cash Advance, the business next door in the strip mall to RG Sounds. During that robbery, the lone female clerk was taken by gunpoint into the back room while the robber made off again on foot to a possible waiting vehicle with a substantial amount of cash.
William Morgan, last known address of Mansfield, is currently being held at Mansfield Correctional Institution on charges connected to 10 different similar robberies of cash advances, including the one in Wapakoneta.
Anyone with information about the robbery at RG Sounds and Communications is asked to contact the Wapakoneta Police Department at 419-738-8802 or by email at
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Last Updated ( Friday, 09 October 2009 )
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