According to FOX Carolina, two men from Greenville County, South Carolina, are facing charges after an armed robbery at a jewelry store in Sanford, North Carolina. Timothy Govenor Alexander and Corey Mitchell Alexander are charged with robbery with a dangerous weapon, three counts of second-degree kidnapping and injury to personal property in the jewelry store armed robbery at Lucas Jewelry & Repair.
Sanford police were called to the store around 11:28 a.m. this week. Employees told officers that two masked men came in with a firearm and ordered them to the back of the building. The workers were restrained with zip ties while one of the men took merchandise from the display cases, and the pair then left in a vehicle, police said. Detectives identified both suspects and obtained arrest warrants, and the Greenville County Sheriff’s Office took them into custody. According to WYFF, the store is on South Horner Boulevard, one suspect is from Simpsonville and the other from Greenville, and both will be extradited to North Carolina. Police have not said what the merchandise was worth.
This is the kind of robbery that worries me most for independent stores. It happened in the late morning, with staff on the floor, and the crew took control of the room by ordering everyone to the back of the building. Three kidnapping counts tell you how serious that part is. Two people with one gun and some zip ties can take over a small store in a minute or two, and a lot of family jewelers run with just two or three people on a weekday morning…