Cashier and customers foil robbery at Esther Price

A cashier and customers thwarted a man with pantyhose over his face from robbing Esther Price Candies on Valentine’s Day.

Police were called shortly after 5:30 p.m. Tuesday to the fine chocolate maker’s retail store at 1709 Wayne Ave.

The suspect was described as a man in his 60s wearing a red hooded sweatshirt with women’s hosiery covering his face and hands. He handed a note written on a small white piece of paper that read, “This is not a joke! Put all of the money that you have in your cash register into this bag, or else!” according to a Dayton Police Department spokesman.

“Everybody in the store got him to leave,” a woman who called 911 said. “The lady running the cash register screamed at him and said, ‘You’re not going to rob me.’”

The suspect did not show a weapon and left before police arrived. However, an employee reported spotting the suspect walking on Wayne Avenue toward Wyoming Street.

Officers found the man in front of Wendy’s on Wayne and confirmed he was the suspect captured on security camera footage. He was wearing a red hoodie and had a bag that contained pantyhose, police said.

The man was intoxicated and confessed to the robbery and said he was sorry, according to the police spokesman.

Formal charges have not been filed, but 61-year-old Charles Pitts of Dayton was charged Friday in Dayton Municipal Court with a minor misdemeanor for public intoxication. He is scheduled to appear Feb. 24 in court for his arraignment.

Pitts also has a Feb. 27 hearing in Montgomery County Common Pleas Court after he was issued a notice of a probation revocation in an unrelated case, according to court records.

He was granted up to five years of community control sanctions in August 2022 after he pleaded guilty via a bill of information to felony theft, a reduction from the original charge of robbery, court records show.

Pitts is held on $10,000 bail in the Montgomery County Jail.