Lebanon police seek help finding 2 suspects in truck stop Jiffy Mart cash grab

By JOHN LIPPMAN

Valley News Staff Writer

Published: 01-04-2023 9:57 PM

LEBANON — Police are seeking the public’s help in identifying two men accused in a “brazen” daytime theft last month at the Jiffy Mart convenience store at The Fort near Exit 18 in Lebanon.

The crime, which occurred Dec. 23 but was made public on Wednesday, appeared to be a planned operation that involved a fake plea for assistance to get the sales clerk out from behind the counter as she was transferring money from the cash register to the store’s safe, according to Lebanon police. One of the men seized the cash and bolted out the door.

No one was harmed during the incident, but the tag-team execution by the two men at the start of the afternoon rush hour at one of the Upper Valley’s busiest interstate intersections on Christmas weekend was “pretty brazen,” Lebanon Police Chief Phil Roberts said.

Whether the suspects took advantage of an unexpected opportunity or purposefully targeted a vulnerable moment in store operations is not known.

A store clerk was in the process of preparing a “drop” — counting and banding cash bills together to put them in the store safe — when the thieves acted, according to Roberts.

“The cash was out and she was doing a hand count, and they distracted her a couple different times, which drew her out from behind the register to offer them the assistance they requested, which provided them the opportunity to grab” the money, Roberts explained.

A manager at the Jiffy Mart referred questions to Global Partners LLC, the Massachusetts-based owner of the Jiffy Mart chain. Global Partners did not respond to request for comment on Wednesday.

Photographs of the alleged thieves captured on store cameras show an older man with a face mask who was described as wearing a brown jacket with an American flag on the left shoulder and the lettering “Snap-On” on the right sleeve, as well as what appeared to be a skull tattoo on his right hand.

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The other man, whose face was fully visible, was wearing a gray shirt with a gray and orange winter hat. Roberts said witnesses pegged his age as early 20s.

Police said the two men were driving a white pickup truck with a yellow snowplow attached to the front, with an apparent dent in the passenger-side door.

Lebanon police this week also issued a news release and posted on Facebook seeking help finding of two women suspected of scanning items through the self-checkout at Target in Lebanon using price tags switched from other, cheaper items.

In June, Lebanon police posted on Facebook a photo of a woman who was suspected of stealing a package from the lobby of the Rivermill Commercial Center on Mechanic Street in Lebanon.

It worked: The woman was identified in the comments section of the Facebook post — by her sister.

Contact John Lippman at jlippman@vnews.com.

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