A man was charged with attempted armed robbery Tuesday night after he walked into an A-1 Pizza and Subs shop and said he was holding up the store, county police said.

Joseph Emmett Tice, 35, of no fixed address, was charged after he was treated at North Arundel Hospital. He called police about 30 minutes after the robbery attempt and told them he had been thrown from a moving van.

Witnesses at A-1 told police that a man came into the shop in the 7300 block of Furnace Branch Road about 8:10 p.m. He had one hand behind his back as though he had a gun. He ordered employees to give him money but left after one of the employees questioned his sanity, police said.

At 8:42 p.m., police received a call from a man at the pay phone of a 7-Eleven store in the 7300 block of Furnace Branch Road. The man said he had been picked up while hitch-hiking but was thrown from the vehicle.

County paramedics took him to North Arundel, where police who went to interview him saw that he fit the description of the man who had tried to rob the A-1 shop. Witnesses from the shop identified the man as the robbery suspect, police said.