CANTON, N.C. — Canton police in western North Carolina are searching for two armed men who robbed a Charlotte-based cash transit van at gunpoint, ABC affiliate WLOS reported.
The armed robbery happened just after 3 p.m. Thursday outside an Exxon gas station in Canton, according to Police Chief Scott Sluder.
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“The suspects were in a white newer model Dodge Durango RT,” Sluder said. “They approached the driver while he was outside, and, at gunpoint, robbed him of the funds he had in the vehicle.”
Approximately $30,000 was stolen, Sluder said. The armed men also took the driver’s weapon and keys, stranding him there for most of the day.
“Two individuals bum-rushed me from the side and demanded the money that I had just put up,” said the driver, who didn’t want to be identified. “They had a pistol to my side and one to my neck, so it was like, yeah, kind of stuck. It happened so fast, everything happened so fast, [there was] nothing I could really do.”
The driver said the men were slender in build and were wearing black long-sleeved jackets with black ski masks.
He said he’s been driving cash transit vehicles for more than a year.
“Our routes are random,” he said. “I don’t know when I get my route in the morning, where I’m going.”
It was his last stop of the day before he was supposed to head back to headquarters in Charlotte.
Cameras outside the building are reportedly down, according to an employee.
“Ironically enough, the cameras were cut yesterday outside,” the driver said. “There’s a lot of questions behind some stuff.”
Frustrated that the suspects got away, he said he relied on prior military training to stay calm.
“A lot of things that ran through my mind but the one thing that stood out most was how can I get out of this situation,” he told WLOS. “At the end of the day, your life is more important than anything.”
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