Store owner recounts armed robbery in Pocatello
Published at | Updated atBLACKFOOT — A Pingree man is sitting in a Bingham County jail cell after eluding officers Monday night.
Authorities say Arnulfo Villasenor robbed K&B Kwik Stop on Pershing Avenue in Pocatello earlier that day.
During his pursuit with deputies on Monday, police say, he allegedly drove on and off the road and through potato fields before they arrested the man at his mother’s house.
KPVI spoke with the store owner who says, his employee was just an hour into her shift when Villasenor allegedly came in the store demanding cash, after he nearly came inches to shooting the clerk in the head.
“As soon as (my employee) called me she was like, ‘We were robbed at gunpoint.’ My first [thought]… ‘Is everyone okay?’” said store owner David Kraning.
In surveillance video a man is seen wandering around the store until the last customer leaves. Then he approaches the counter making small talk with the clerk, but then pulls out a gun, demanding cash.
“(Those cameras are one) of the best investments we’ve ever made. You can see these cameras in the ceiling here, had excellent footage of this guy,” Kraning says. “At (one) point he pointed the gun just a little bit away from her and fired into the wall.”
The bullet hit the cigarette display and ricocheted through the cigarette boxes before police ultimately found the bullet on the other side of the counter. Kraning tells KPVI. “We had detectives, patrol man going back to our DVR system taking shots off their smart phones off the monitor, sending it out to all the guys on the street. So they knew who they were looking for.”
The man got away with a little over $200, but was caught five hours later. The store owner says, he’s made investments in the right places. “You know when you have these things, and you have an incident like this, it more than pays for itself.”
As for the victim, the store owner says she is doing fine and they’ve given her time off. Villasenor, was arraigned Tuesday in Bingham County for the eluding charges and will appear in court again next month. As for the robbery charges in Pocatello those will be filed soon.