NORTH RIDGEVILLE — Police are asking for help to locate and identify a woman who held up a female driver at gunpoint at a gas station.
The armed robbery occurred just before 7 a.m. Friday at the BP station at Lorain and Lear-Nagle roads when a woman believed to be on her way to work stopped for gas, according to police Capt. Marti Garrow.
The 55-year-old victim, who lives in Grafton, was unharmed “but very shaken,” Garrow said. “She was terrified of the situation.”
This photo, provided by North Ridgeville Police, shows the bike left behind at the scene of a robbery in North Ridgeville on Friday.
The woman told police she was pumping gas when another woman rode up on a bicycle. Video surveillance footage released by police showed the hooded suspect walking away from the gas station toward the canopied pump island where the victim was.
“She walked toward the car and then lingered around it, pacing back and forth by the front passenger side,” Garrow said.
Police believe the suspect was waiting for the victim to finish pumping.
Once the woman finished, she got back into her vehicle.
“At almost exactly the same time, the suspect gets in the car from the passenger side,” Garrow said. “The victim yells for her to get of the car, and then the woman (robber) demands money and sticks a gun in her side.”
Police said the weapon was believed to be a black, semi-automatic pistol, Garrow said.
Police declined to say how much money was taken but noted the victim also was ordered to turn over her cell phone. The suspect also asked the victim for jewelry, but she had none, police said.
At that point, the suspect ordered the woman to drive away from the gas station.
The vehicle headed north on Lear-Nagle Road, continuing west into a housing development where the armed robber instructed the driver to stop and drop her off, Garrow said.
Garrow declined to identify the housing development.
“We believe the woman lives in the area or has ties to people there,” Garrow said. “It was less than a mile from the BP.”
The driver went to the McDonald’s on Lorain Road, where she called police.
While the gas station video footage was not sharp enough to identify the robber, Garrow said police are looking for a heavyset white woman between 5 feet, 2 inches tall and 5 feet, 6 inches tall who was wearing a maroon jacket with a hood and gray sweatpants.
The woman’s face was covered with a tan or gray scarf, according to Garrow.
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