Convenience Store Employees Thwart Armed Robber
By Jeff Henson
HNN Writer At-Large

The turnaround started with a purposely dropped wallet.
 
After that, a Chesapeake armed robber wished he never walked into Harts Corner on Fourth Avenue.
 
He picked the wrong place to holdup.
 
Employees of Harts Corner, 546 Fourth Ave., rallied in the face of potential violence and stopped an armed robber from ripping off the store about 12:20 a.m. Thursday. The robber was arrested by Huntington police on a charge of armed robbery in the first degree.
 
The night went down like this:
 
A man asked Employee #1 if he could cash a payroll check from a local company. Emplyee #1 said he could. The man reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a .22-caliber revolver. He said, "How about you just give me all the money."
 
Employee #2, who was stannding by the counter, told the man not to do anything crazy. He offered the man his wallet. When he started to hand the wallet to the man, he purposely dropped it on the ground. The man looked down. Employee #2 grabbed the gun and tried to disarm him.
 
While the man and Employee #2 wrestled over the gun, one shot was fired into a wall. Employee #3 heard the shot and came to help Employee #2. Then, all three employees, along with another man, fought the robber while pushing him out the door.
 
When officers arrived, all four men were on top of the robber on a porch area, holding him to the ground.
 
Arrested was Stephen A. McCaffery, 39, of 11386 County Road 1.
 
Officers searched him and found one Xanax and one Valium. He was also charged with possession of a controlled substance.
 
Way to go, fellas.
 
Other news from the Huntington Police Department Thursday:
 
----- A 25-year-old Huntington woman is being terrorized by two men who were allegedly involved in a sexual assault of the woman last winter.
 
The woman told police Tuesday that two men called her at her Huntington home about 1:30 a.m. Saturday. One of the men identified himself and the other man. They said they were outside her apartment. They said she better look down, because they were going to come up and have sex with her.
 
After the phone call, the woman looked outside and saw both men sitting in a gold Nissan.
 
The men were allegedly involved in a sexual assault the woman claimed happened in December 2002.
 
----- A thief broke into Bennett's Sharper Image, 419 12th St., and stole $250 between 4:30 p.m. Wednesday and 6:15 a.m. Thursday.
 
----- A 32-year-old Huntington man reported Wednesday a thief broke into his home in the 900 block of Jackson Avenue and stole a 9mm gun worth $400 between Oct. 1 and Oct. 25.
 
----- Arrested: Julian W. Neal III, 22, of 206 North Blvd., on charges of destruction of property and public intoxication. He was arrested in the 600 block of Ninth Street about 3:55 a.m. Thursday.
 
----- Arrested: Richard P. Blake, 24, of 1342 Rear Hall St., on a second offense of driving on a suspended licence. He was arrested in the 600 block of Ninth Street about 4 p.m. Wednesday.
 
----- Arrested: Bradley S. Dunlap, 28, of 1210 Wade St., Ashland, on a charge of possession of a controlled substance (crack). He was arrested in the 1600 block of Fairfield Plaza about 7 p.m. Wednesday.
 
----- Arrested: John Q. Cassity, 33, of 1745 Jefferson Ave., on charges of driving on a suspended license, driving without insurance, failure to obtain state registration and failure to obtain an operator's license. He was arretsed in the 1700 block of Jefferson Avenue about 9:45 a.m. Wednesday.
 
Be well.