Wilmot store clerk a ‘real trooper’

Woman threatened with hammer, knife during armed robbery keeps her cool

This man, caught on video surveillance, is the suspect in an armed robbery July 17 in Wilmot. A clerk was threatened with a hammer and a knife. The man fled with a small amount of cash and the 22-year-old clerk was not physically harmed.

approached the clerk with a hammer held in the air, and demanded money from the clerk,” Annapolis District RCMP said in a media release. “He then threatened her with a small knife.”

Police are asking for the public’s assistance in identifying the man.

Surveillance video shows the man enter the store at 8:49 p.m., come around the counter, and point repeatedly – jabbing his left finger towards the cash register – while holding the hammer back over his right shoulder.

When the clerk finally opens the cash register drawer, he moves in and takes out the money in his left hand, turns and flees out the door – all in less than Wilmot Kwik-Way Convenience Store was robbed by a man wielding a hammer and knife July 17. When the lone clerk was confronted, she kept her cool and called 911 as the man fled. Police are hoping the public can help identify the suspect.

40 seconds. As he turns to leave the counter area, a knife is also visible. He runs out the door and turns right towards the west end of the parking lot.

“The clerk was the only other person in the store at the time, and no one was injured during the robbery,” said police, adding the man fled the scene on foot with an amount of cash.

Police said the suspect is a white male, 18 to 20 years old, about five-foot-four, with a thin build. He was wearing a red plaid shirt or jacket with a grey hood, a white T-shirt, pants and shoes. He used his T-shirt to cover his face during the robbery.

Repeated break-ins

The Wilmot store was broken into three times last year – in October, November, and December, Adams-Hudson said. The last time, thieves used crowbars to smash things, open items and left the store in a shambles. The thieves even cut exterior power to the alarm and removed the security system before they made off

with cigarettes and lottery tickets.

Back then, she received a lot of support on Facebook, but the thieves were never apprehended. This time, she used her cellphone to take video from the surveillance cameras and posted the video on Facebook. The response was immediate; within 36 hours, the video had been viewed almost 20,000 times, and people on Facebook were on high alert for the suspect.

“It’s absolutely wonderful,” she said of the Facebook help and support. “People have been trying so hard to help us that it amazes me.”

Can social media help solve the crime?

“Yes, it did once,” she said in reference to one of the earlier 2015 break-ins. “I didn’t have it on there (Facebook) 10 minutes before I had names – and they got the person.”

The Kwik-Way, which is also a Canada Post outlet, is located just west of the busy Guy’s Frenchys intersection. Adams-Hudson said she was very impressed with the quick RCMP response, but also with her employee. “You never know if they’re listening when you train them,” she said, adding in this case, she has no doubts.

Right now, Adams-Hudson is just plain angry.

“I just want him caught,” she said.

A Berwick man was sentenced on July 19 to a 90- day conditional sentence and two years of probation on charges of criminal harassment, prowling at night and voyeurism.

Craig Michael Wasson, 19, pleaded guilty June 13 to charges of committing criminal harassment by repeatedly watching a woman; prowling at night near a house; and surreptitiously observing a woman for a sexual purpose.

Wasson was ordered by the judge to provide a DNA sample and pay a $ 100 victims’ services charge.

He committed the offences in Berwick between Jan. 16 and March 9 and between Jan. 15 and March 10.

Wasson had previously been found fit to stand trial following an assessment of psychological fitness and criminal responsibility by the East Coast Forensic Hospital.

Wasson had also been charged with luring a child under age 16 for the purpose of facilitating the offence of invitation to sexual touching and invitation to sexual touching.

In provincial court on July 19, a total of seven other charges against Wasson were withdrawn by the Crown.