WINONA – An Ohio couple is in police custody in connection with the armed robbery of a local convenience store.
Sammy Alexander Bolen, 37, and Melinda Jo Moore, 35, both of Creston, Ohio, were arrested and charged with armed robbery in connection with the June 28 armed robbery of the Pilot Travel Center located on Highway 82 just west of Interstate 55.
According to Captain Dan Herod, chief investigator for the Winona Police Department, just after 9 a.m. Thursday morning, a man entered the Pilot Travel Center, brandished a firearm, and told the store manager to empty the cash register.
“He demanded the manager put the money from the cash register into a bag he brought with him,” Herod said. “Between customers and other employees there were around six to seven people around the counter at the time [of the robbery].”
The man left the store in a blue Toyota RAV4 SUV with Ohio license plates and headed west on Highway 82.
“I immediately called [Sheriff Clint Walker],” Herod said. “The store manager contacted the [Montgomery County Emergency Operations Center] and they alerted the Carroll County [Emergency Operations Center]. We gave them a description of the vehicle and the suspects.”
Herod said at 9:21 a.m., Walker called and said the Carroll County Sheriff’s Department had the suspects in custody.
“They arrested them at the gas station at [Highway 17 and Highway 82],” Herod said.
He said the two suspects were taken into police custody without incident. The Carroll County deputies recovered $965 that was allegedly stolen from the Pilot Travel Center along with two air-soft pistols, pistols that fire plastic bullets and are not considered lethal weapons.
“It has been determined that one of those was the gun used in the robbery,” Herod said.
Herod commended the quick reaction of the manager and staff at the Pilot Travel Center.
“The main reason this ended as quickly as it did was how calm the victim stayed and was able to provide responders with correct and good information,” Herod said. “That information was relayed to the Montgomery County EOC and the Carroll County EOC.”
Herod praised the dispatchers in both counties.
“Dispatchers don’t always get credit for their work,” Herod said. “I want to thank Allan Pratt and the Montgomery County Emergency Operations Center and the Carroll County Emergency Operations Center for what a good job they did in this situation. They couldn’t have done any better.”
Herod also thanked Sheriff Walker and the Carroll County Sheriff’s Department for apprehending the suspects.
“This is an example of law enforcement working well together,” Herod said. “Everything from the victim’s description of the suspects, to the dispatching from 911 operators, to all the officers involved was textbook work.”
Bolen and Moore are being held on $500,000 bonds. Bolen is currently in the custody of the Carroll-Montgomery Regional Correctional Facility, and Moore is being held in the Webster County Jail.
