Police search for 2 robbers after 5 robberies in 3 counties

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Police have recovered a red pickup truck believed to be the getaway vehicle from five overnight armed robberies. However, the two robbers are still out there.

Police agencies in three counties are looking for two men who drove nearly 70 miles on a violent crime spree early Thursday.

Businesses from north Charlotte, to Gaston County, to York County were hit, likely by the same two men. Police are working together, and sharing surveillance video from several of the crime scenes.

Here's a timeline of the crime spree:
It started in Dallas, at a Dollar General store on New Hope Road. The robbers hit that store at 9:15 p.m., then drove to a Circle K store at the Plaza in Charlotte at 12:43 a.m. Next was a 7-Eleven store on Carowinds Boulevard in York County at 1:59 a.m. Another 7-Eleven store on Brookshire Boulevard was robbed at 3:01 a.m. and finally another 7-Eleven store on Mt. Holly-Huntersville road at 3:43 a.m.

In most cases, money and cigarettes were stolen.

On the surveillance video from the Dollar General in Dallas, you can see a black man in all dark clothes, and a Hispanic man wearing a New York plaid shirt and a ball cap. One man approaches the checkout counter and pulls a dark-colored handgun from behind his back. The other is seen at the counter, already pointing a gun at the clerk.

Surveillance pictures released from York County sheriff's deputies of the Carowinds Boulevard robbery show the suspects exactly match the two who robbed the Dollar General, about 30 miles away.

Channel 9 showed those pictures to Dallas police, who said they were clearly the same two men.

Surveillance video from the three stores targeted in Charlotte has not been released. As of late Thursday, Charlotte-Mecklenburg police had not released more information about any of those cases.



WSOC