Clerk refuses to call police after robbery

Clerk refuses to call police after robbery

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS


GARY, Ind. (AP) - A woman who was robbed at knifepoint while pumping gas into her church's van couldn't believe it when the gas station attendant refused to call police for help.
"I ran, of course, to the nearest place," Gary resident Rosetta Heffner said, recounting Sunday's robbery.

Her request to call 911 was met with silence from the other side of the Citgo station's counter.

She tried again.

The clerk's response?

"Use your cell phone."

Heffner couldn't believe it.

"I thought it would be a safe haven, anything could have happened, and he told me to use my cell phone," Heffner told the Post-Tribune of Merrillville.

The gas station's manager said he was sorry about the robbery, but clerks at the station do not make emergency calls from the front counter, fearing retaliation for criminals.

"We have to be careful," he said. "If we call, then there are problems. They can hear. So we use the back phone. We are always helpful to the customer, but we have to protect ourselves."

Members of the Moving Spirit Church, which Heffner attends, regularly use the gas station to refill the church's vehicles.

At least they used to.

Member Latrell Peterson said the church will take its business elsewhere.

"We have eight vans and three buses rolling every day, but we don't go there now," Peterson said.