Clarksville store manager upset over string of robberies

By DAVID A. MANN
David.Mann@newsandtribune.com

April 30, 2008 10:20 am

— After being robbed twice in the last month, possibly by the same person, a Clarksville store manager said she’s fed up with crime in her neighborhood.
In the last 18 months, the Save-A-Step convenience store on South Clark Boulevard in Clarksville has been robbed eight times, according to store manager Kristi Hamby.
Most recently, the store was robbed late in the evening of April 17 and then again in the early last Friday morning.
The store security camera captured video of the suspect and his car both times. The evidence has been handed over to Clarksville police, but Hamby is upset with the department because the suspect hasn’t been caught.
“It just seems like they don’t care,” she said.
Detective Joseph Craig, who’s handling the latest case, said he has compared the surveillance tapes and believes the same suspect committed both robberies.
The video has been distributed to local television news outlets, so as to get the image out there.
“It’s not super clear, but someone who knows the individual, they would recognize him,” Craig said.
The detective said such robbery cases are difficult because there’s often no way of knowing where the suspect is coming from and no physical evidence is available.
“You’re going to have to spot them, know the information,” he said.
Hamby said the neighborhood around the Save-A-Step has deteriorated, as well. In addition to the robberies, there’s been vandalism, shootings and drug activities in the area, she said.
Only one of the suspects who robbed the store has been apprehended. It was the Jeffersonville Police Department who made that arrest, after the suspect tried to rob a store there, Hamby said.
“Something has to be done,” she said.
Craig notes that he was not the officer who was working on the first case.
When he initially responded to the call last Friday, he was unaware that the first robbery had taken place until the store staff explained it to him.
“People are going to complain when you’re not right there when it happens, but it’s impossible to predict when these things are going to happen,” he said.