Abraham Lincoln Thief

It is business as usual at a convenience store in Rockville, Maryland. The surveillance footage is showing the inside of a cashier room which has a glass window where a cashier woman is sitting and taking money from the customers. She finishes handing the receipt to the last customer in the store when suddenly; a familiar figure walks in the store. A tall African American man dressed up as Abraham Lincoln dashes in the store. He directly approaches the cashier area and instructs the lady clerk to give him the money she instantly attempts to close the glass window by sliding it shut, but the man prevents her from doing so and immediately pulls out a loaded 45mm gun.

The clerk runs away from him and starts screaming in the back room. He jumps inside the cashier room through the open glass window and fiddles with the cash register in an attempt to acquire some money but he can not open the register. That is because the clerk immediately closed the cash drawer when she first saw him walk in the store. At a later interview she explains that she quickly realized that something was out of the ordinary when she first saw him coming in the store and closed the register as a precautionary act. But the robber will not leave the store. He shoos away customers by telling them that the store is currently closed. He even answers the phone in an attempt to hide the fact that the store was under attack.

Finally the thief goes to the back room and orders the clerk to open up the register for him. Although the frightened woman walks with him back to the cash register, she does not open it up for him and begins to dispute with him in an attempt to try to convince him that the machine is jammed and will not open. She risks her life arguing with the gunman. Luckily a customer walks in the store; this prevents the cautious robber from exposing his gun since he was overly concerned about the tranquil appearance of the whole incident, at least in the customers’ eyes. The customer approaches the cashier area; the gunman as usual told him that the store is closed for the day. However the customer does not move and instead tries to get involved.

Another customer comes in the store, this alarms the robber since it increases his chance of getting exposed and outnumbered. He finally gets frustrated with the woman and the entire incident and makes a quick exit, empty handed. Eventually the law catches up with the crook and thanks to the surveillance footage he is now serving a term of 30 years in prison. As this incident has clearly proven, unusual crimes can easily occur in any location without prior warning. A security surveillance systems will greatly assist in monitoring the area in the occurrence of any criminal incident in order to capture and prosecute the criminal elements. Not to mention that these security devices assist in deterring criminals away before they even attempt to perform any type of illegal activity.