Howard County had seven armed robberies over the weekend -- an unusually large number -- and police believe at least two of them are related. There were five commercial and two civilian robberies in Columbia, North Laurel and Ellicott City, including a bank in Oakland Mills village.
There were no injuries in any of the incidents, and no suspects had been caught yesterday, said Sgt. Morris Carroll, public information officer for Howard County police.
"This is very unusual for us," he said. A typical weekend, he said, might yield one or two robberies.
The first robbery took place Friday afternoon at 2: 28 p.m., when a man wearing a brown braided wig entered the FCNB Bank in the 5500 block of Twin Knolls Road in Oakland Mills and handed a teller a note demanding money. The note implied that he had a gun, Carroll said.
After receiving an undisclosed amount of money, the man escaped on foot, running toward Thunder Hill Road and peeling off the wig and jacket as he ran. Police recovered those items.
About 11: 08 p.m. Friday, two men, one wielding a handgun, robbed the Pizza Time Restaurant in the 10100 block of Washington Blvd. in North Laurel and ran off with an undisclosed amount of money, Carroll said. Sixteen minutes later, he said, three men robbed the Pizza Hut in the 9100 block of Maier Road in North Laurel, taking an undisclosed amount of money. Two of the three are thought to have taken part in the Pizza Time robbery.
At 2: 33 a.m. Saturday, a 55-year-old man was accosted at gunpoint in the parking lot behind the Tor High Rise apartments in the 5700 block of Stevens Forest Road in Oakland Mills in Columbia. The man had just parked his car when two men approached him. One showed him a handgun and the men demanded that he drop his keys and lay on the ground, Carroll said. They then stole his car, a 1987 blue Buick Skylark with the Maryland tag number HAB500.
At 3: 04 p.m. Saturday, a man entered the High's Dairy Store in the 4800 block of Montgomery Road in Ellicott City and asked for a pack of cigarettes. Then he put a gun to the clerk's head and demanded that the clerk open the cash register. The robber took an undisclosed amount of cash and fled on foot.
At 7: 58 p.m. Saturday, two men, one armed, robbed a woman of her purse outside an apartment complex in the 8900 block of Town & Country Blvd. in Ellicott City. The woman had just left her car outside the Town & Country Apartments when the men walked up to her and displayed the gun. They demanded her purse, which contained an undisclosed amount of cash.
At 10: 45 p.m. Sunday, two men, one of them armed, entered the carry-out section of the Bottom of the Bay Restaurant in the 9500 block of North Laurel Road in North Laurel. The armed man attempted to vault the counter and failed, then displayed a semiautomatic pistol. The men stole an undetermined amount of cash from the register, then fled on foot.
Pub Date: 3/23/99