News

Police looking into connections between 2 late-night robberies

By Jordan J. Phelan
[email protected]
CLAREMONT — Authorities in Claremont continue to investigate a string of robberies within the past few days to determine whether they are connected.

Two robberies took place in a span of less than 24 hours on the same stretch of road in Claremont this week, police said. In each case, one suspect entered the store and demanded money from the clerk.

On Tuesday night, Police Chief Mark Chase said that the department received a call at approximately 9:30 p.m. indicating that a robbery had taken place at Cumberland Farms. In an interview with the Eagle Times, Chase said that the suspect issued a threat to the clerk but said he couldn’t provide the particulars as to what the threat was at this time. The suspect then exited the store with an undisclosed amount of money.

A similar incident occurred the following night at approximately 9 p.m. when the suspect entered Family Dollar, also located on Pleasant Street, and demanded cash from the clerk. The suspect then exited the store with an undisclosed amount of money.

The Claremont Police Department is currently investigating both incidents and working leads acquired from digital evidence and other community sources.

Due to the reported similarities and the relatively close geographical proximity, the department has begun to consider the possibility that the two incidents are connected.

“[The Claremont Police Department] believes that more than likely [the robberies] are related,” Chase said. “I don’t want to say that they were committed by the same person, but with the similarities of the two incidents we are definitely looking into the possibility that they are related and at this point we believe they probably are.”

Law enforcement is also looking into the possibility that the two recent robberies are in some way related to the CVS Pharmacy robbery that took place in late August.

Chase also cleared up recent confusion among local residents as to the police department’s response to a call at Runnings. He said that their presence was in response to a report of a suspicious person within the store, not a robbery as some have suggested.

Chase indicated that the call was most likely related to the public’s awareness of the recent robberies.

“Absent these robberies that occurred earlier in the week, we may not have received that call. But people who have heard of these robberies are probably hypervigilant and saw what they would classify as suspicious activity and called us so we responded.”

While the department is not upping its patrols in the area where the recent robberies have taken place as most active patrol routes are already situated in the downtown Pleasant Street area, police encourage all residents to remain aware of their surroundings, especially at night, and urge those with any potential information regarding these three incidents to call the Claremont Police Department at (603) 542-9538.

All three incidents remain under investigation.

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