WHITE CO.—It looks like the Walmart bandit who struck Robinson and Lawrenceville recently has now targeted two and maybe three others in the region.
According to Carmi Police Chief Randy Hamblin, an incident at 1:19 a.m. this morning (Friday, August 16) was reported at Carmi’s Walmart out on the highway (Illinois Route 1 southwest of town), involving registers being jimmied and cash being taken.
Hamblin said he and his department are coordinating or planning to coordinate with other Walmarts in the area, but they suspect this is the same guy who hit at least the Robinson and Lawrenceville locations last week, then the Marshall location and possibly an Evansville location this week.
Dude walking into Marshall Walmart on August 14
Dude jimmying the register at Marshall Walmart August 14
Hamblin said that while they weren’t able to establish identifying information about the guy from any eyewitnesses at the Carmi Walmart, the store’s security (asset protection specialist) is currently putting together a video that shows the alleged perpetrator from every camera he passed by on his way to a register, which he managed to jimmie open, and from which he took an unknown amount of cash.
It’s been confirmed that prior to the Carmi incident, the alleged thief also hit Fairfield’s Walmart. Fairfield Police Chief Brad Winters told Disclosure that store video shows the man entering the store, going to the Lawn & Garden center, tampering with the register there, and leaving with a sum of cash, this at 11:41 p.m. last night.
The loss of money at Fairfield’s Walmart was discovered and was reported to Fairfield police at 12:28 this morning. It was about $200.
Winters says they too are reviewing the video from the Fairfield location this morning, and thus far have been able to ascertain that the man, a white male with very short hair wearing white athletic shorts, a blue shirt, a black hoodie and black ball cap, came into the store and proceeded to Lawn & Garden as described above.
In other locations, the presumably same man did the same thing…and in Robinson’s location, seemed to be decked out the same way, sans the black hoodie and cap:
Video still of the Robinson Walmart heist, August 8, 2013
Hamblin said that prior to these incidents, it’s his understanding that the Walmart in Centralia was also hit.
A shot of the Marshall Walmart parking lot, with the car in question seen pulling out of a parking spot.
In most locations, the man is shown either arriving or leaving the store in a silver 2-door passenger car.
A shot of the car in question arriving at the Robinson Walmart
We’ll bring more info as we get it….keep checking back, especially if Carmi’s and Fairfield’s Walmarts come up with stills from the video.