Man Charged with Robbery for August Shotgun Stickup at Northport Gas Station
A Northport man has been arrested and charged with first-degree robbery in connection to a shotgun stickup at a gas station across the river back in August.
According to court documents filed Wednesday and obtained by the Thread, officers responded to the Circle K gas station at 1701 Lurleen B. Wallace Boulevard on August 13 on reports of an armed robbery.
The victim, a customer at the service station, told police he paid for his gas inside the building and was followed outside by a man wearing all black - a man they now believe was 31-year-old Orlando Raymon Lacy.
The victim told police the man probably saw the contents of his wallet when he was paying the clerk inside.
Outside at the pumps, the alleged robber "approached [the victim] with a shotgun hidden under a shirt and demanded his wallet." The victim told police he handed it over, and when the alleged robber also demanded his cell phone, the man reportedly threw the phone away from himself so the other man would have to walk away to retrieve it.
The man with the shotgun allegedly opted not to chase the cell phone and fled the scene with the wallet in a black Audi.
Investigators with the Northport Police Department then reviewed video footage and were working to identify their suspect when the Tuscaloosa Police Department called them a few days later to report that someone matching the description of their shotgun-wielding robber had tried to pass counterfeit money at a store on Skyland Boulevard on this side of the river.
Surveillance footage from the incident in Tuscaloosa showed the man leaving in a different vehicle than the one that fled the Circle K in August. Looking for that second car led police to Lacy's residence in Northport, where the Audi was parked behind some trees on the property "where it appeared he was trying to hide it," according to court documents.
Both the vehicle and Lacy himself exactly match witness accounts and surveillance footage of the August stickup at the gas station.
The 31-year-old Northport man was arrested this Tuesday, October 3rd, and charged with first-degree robbery. He was placed in the Tuscaloosa County Jail, where he remained Friday on a $60,000 bond.
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