A masked robber wearing a clown mask walked into a Palm Coast Amoco gas station near State Road 100 and Interstate 95 on Saturday evening, pointed a black bag at the clerk as if it held a weapon, and warned her, “Don’t be a hero.” At 7:39 p.m., deputies say they caught the man they believe did it, sitting behind the wheel of a stolen SUV in St. Augustine with the stolen cash and register drawer still inside.
According to the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office, deputies responded to the reported robbery at approximately 6:22 p.m. on October 31. The robber had one hand concealed inside a black bag, which he pointed toward the clerk as if a weapon were inside, telling her to “open the cash register, and don’t be a hero,” per the sheriff’s office. The clerk opened the register, raised her hands and stepped back, and the robber grabbed the cash and the register drawer before fleeing in a vehicle, as reported by WFTV.
Surveillance Footage Set the Trap
Investigators say surveillance video shows the same man entering the store roughly 16 minutes before deputies were called, walking in around 6:06 p.m., speaking briefly with the clerk, and leaving without buying anything. The sheriff’s office says he then waited in the parking lot until other customers left before returning to rob the store. Detectives told reporters they matched a hand tattoo visible in the surveillance footage as the robber grabbed the cash to the same tattoo on the suspect eventually taken into custody.
Not long after the holdup, license plate reader cameras alerted a St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office K-9 deputy to the Chevrolet Traverse at approximately 7:39 p.m., and the deputy stopped the vehicle in St. Augustine. The sheriff’s office identified the driver as Adrian Rafael Castano, 18, of Miami, saying he was wearing the same clothes as the robber and had cash and the Amoco register drawer in the vehicle when he was stopped.
Suspect Says He Knew SUV Was Stolen, Denies Taking the Money
Per the sheriff’s office, Castano told detectives he knew the SUV was stolen when he took it and drove it north on Interstate 95, though he denied taking any money. The account given to investigators leaves that denial sitting alongside the cash and register drawer deputies say they found in the vehicle with him…