WESTBROOK — Two teenagers were arrested last week in a Dec. 31 armed robbery at the Bridgton Road Gulf Mart. It was the second armed robbery at the gas station in less than a month.
Police responded to a call on New Year’s Eve that two people had robbed the Gulf Mart with a gun. The police were called when a neighbor saw the cashier flee the store. The neighbor chased the suspects in an attempt to identify them.
“Two males entered the store and were armed. The clerk was able to flee the store safely, and no one was injured. Officers that night were able to locate a weapon used in the robbery and found that it was a realistic-looking BB gun,” Capt. Steve Goldberg said.
On Jan. 2, police arrested a 16-year-old male and a 17-year-old male, charging each with Class A Felony Robbery. The teens were taken to the Long Creek Youth Development Center.
The two teenagers have also been charged with a Dec. 26 armed robbery at Jake’s Quick Stop on Brighton Avenue, according to the Portland Press Herald. The pair threatened that clerk with a gun and demanded cash, police said.
Ronald Carrier, who lives in the condominium complex next to the mart, first saw the cashier run full speed out of the store’s back door, and initially thought the cashier was a robber himself.
“I was walking my dog, walking towards 302, when I saw him run out. I started running and told (people nearby) to call the police because the store was robbed again,” Carrier said.
Carrier described the two actual suspects, dressed in all black, hop the fence separating the store from his condominium complex. At that point, Carrier said, adrenaline kicked in and he began to chase them.
“I didn’t have any plan, I was really hoping that chasing them would maybe cause one of them to fall, and I could hold them until police arrived or something,” he said.
He continued to chase them, but lost site of them, he said. His neighbors later told him they saw the two suspects get picked up in a car that was later identified by police and tied to the crime.
Police are investigating whether either of the teens was involved in a Dec. 13 robbery at the Gulf Mart. Police are still searching for that robber, a male armed with what appeared to be a pistol.
The Dec. 13 robber is described as a black male, wearing black pants with white stripes down the side, a backpack and a black hoodie with a distinctive logo on it.
Anyone with information is asked to contact Detective Jeff Stackpole at 207-854-0644, ext. 2420, or at jstackpole@westbrook.me.us. Anonymous tips can be left at 207-591-8117.
Gulf Mart security footage shows the suspect of the Dec. 13 robbery. File photo
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