Female Robbers Bind, Pepper Spray Store Employees
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Photo credit: KTRK(HOUSTON) — Surveillance cameras at a Houston Radio Shack captured a brazen robbery in which three women allegedly tied up and pepper sprayed store employees and stole 60 smartphones.
The video footage showed three women entering the store dressed in bulky black clothing with hoods over their heads. The last woman locked the door and the group headed for the store’s storage room.
One of the robbers duct-taped an employee’s hands while another forced a second employee at gunpoint to unlock a storage cabinet.
One of the hooded thieves then dumped the dozens of smartphones into a black bag while another used duct tape to bind the hands and mouth of the second employee.
As the robbers turned to leave, one paused to turn around and pepper spray one of the bound employees.
“They didn’t care for themselves or anybody’s safety at the time,” Baytown Police Department detective Edgar Elizondo told ABC News’ Houston station KTRK-TV.
Within an hour, police were able to track the women to a location about 10 miles away where they were arrested. The three women who are accused of robbing the store were arrested as well as a woman who drove the getaway car, police told KTRK.
Authorities are now looking into the group’s connection to a string of other armed robberies. Authorities believe the women may be responsible for at least three other armed robberies in the city.
“These three females who robbed the store [were] possibly involved in other robberies in the Houston area,” Elizondo said.
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