Arrest made in Somerset armed robbery
EIGHTY FOUR – State police wasted no time locating a suspect in an armed robbery early Thursday of a Somerset Township convenience store.
A trooper drove a short distance from the crime scene to the Somerset home of Robert W. Petrick Jr., 23, where he found the engine still warm on the same dark Chrysler PT Cruiser shown on a surveillance camera pulling into the Sunoco at Routes 136 and 519 before it was robbed, court records show.
Police said they found Petrick, who has been awaiting sentencing in Washington County Court in three separate robbery cases, hiding in a closet in his residence at 159 Almond Road and some of the stolen money in a dresser, according to the affidavit supporting the criminal charges in the case.
The PT Cruiser is shown in the video circling the store before it traveled to the side, where it went out of view of the camera. The surveillance next showed a man wearing a cap, black coat and a pink bandanna covering his face walking around from the same side of the store and entering the business.
The clerks told investigators the suspect walked to the back of the store and demanded that the register be unlocked, saying he needed “money right now,” the affidavit states.
The robber, who had a black handgun on his left hip, was given $225.95 in a plastic bag, a trooper noted in the affidavit.
Police claim Petrick gave statements following his arrest indicating he used a pellet gun during the robbery and spent some of the stolen money on cocaine before returning to his home.
District Judge Larry Hopkins sent Petrick to Washington County Jail Thursday evening on $50,000 bond on charges of robbery and theft.
Petrick is scheduled to enter a plea Monday before Washington County Judge Gary Gilman in a March 2014 receiving stolen property case in Washington. He’s also awaiting sentencing for robbing three Bentleyville businesses in January 2015 and the convenience store across the street from the Sunoco a month later.
Petrick’s attorney, Peter Marcoline, said he was aware of his client’s Thursday arrest, but he hadn’t yet read the criminal complaint in the case.