Thieves keep robbing stores on Cherry Road. Rock Hill Police say two may be connected
Another Cherry Road business has been hit by armed thieves in a nighttime heist that Rock Hill police say has “similarities” with a convenience store robbery nearby just days earlier.
In both the Thursday night robbery at Budiman’s smoke shop and art gallery as well as a Saturday incident at 7-Eleven, three masked suspects, including one with a gun, were involved, according to the Rock Hill Police Department.
In both crimes, one armed suspect demanded money from a store employee while the other two filled sacks with store products, police said. The suspects wore dark clothes in both crimes.
“We are looking at the similarities that do exist in both of these cases,” Rock Hill police Lt. Michael Chavis told The Herald Friday morning.
No arrests have been made in either robbery.
The Budiman’s store is in the 1300 block of Cherry Road and the 7-Eleven is in the 1400 block, Chavis said. The Budiman’s robbery Thursday was around 11:30 p.m. Saturday’s robbery was in the overnight hours after 4 a.m.
The gunman in the Budiman’s robbery ordered people in the store at the time to get on the ground. Then, the thieves took cellphones from the persons inside, police said in a statement.
No one was hurt, police said.
Police are working on retrieving video surveillance video from the area around the Budiman’s robbery, Chavis said.
Other Cherry Road crimes in the past month
Cherry Road, from the Catawba River south through Rock Hill, is one of the city’s busiest commercial corridors.
The area of the incidents is south of where Cherry Road and Celanese Road intersect with Interstate 77 at Exit 82.
The two unsolved gun crimes from this week come on the heels of two other armed robberies on that stretch of Cherry Road, including one store robbery that led to a suspect allegedly shooting at police before being caught after a chase.
On Jan. 23, a Circle K store on Cherry Road was robbed at gunpoint. Two suspects fled before they were caught after the pursuit in rural York County. Both of those suspects who are from Charlotte and Virginia remain in jail.
On Jan. 12, a man with a gun stole two automotive scanners in a holdup at mechanic shop on Cherry Road, police said. That robbery remains under investigation but police have not said it is believed to be connected to the Budiman’s and 7-Eleven heists.
