‘I had to keep calm:’ Dollar General in Jasper Co. loses over $2k in robbery at gunpoint
A Dollar General store in Levy was robbed Sunday night by a masked man who held a gun to the head of a worker’s father before fleeing with more than $2,000, authorities said.
As the employees were locking up for the night, a man came out of the woods next to the store and held the gun to the man’s head in order force the workers inside to unlock the door, according to a Jasper County Sheriff’s Office report.
Sherry Brabham, 55, was managing the store that night.
The father of her 23-year-old coworker was on his way to pick up his son from the store when he saw someone walking on the side of Okatie Highway. The father pulled into the store’s parking lot, and the same man appeared out of the woods and pointed a gun at his head, according to the police report.
Meanwhile, Brabham was finishing her end-of-shift report when she heard yelling outside the door.
She saw the robber holding a gun to the man’s head. As the captive yelled to be let in, the robber “put his fingers up, counting down from three,” the report said.
The 23-year-old worker then opened the door.
“The man was coming in one way or the other,” said Brabham in a phone interview. “I was trying to hit my phone to call my manager, and he (the gunman) went after me and he took my phone, slammed it against the floor.”
The safe was still open because workers were closing up, she said. Brabham told the man to take the money and leave.
Brabham was thankful no one was hurt.
“I had to keep calm,” said Brabham. “If I’d have took off running, (the 23-year-old) wouldn’t of known what to do.”
“I was the manager,” she said.
As the man was taking the money, the father ran outside to call 911, the police report says.
“The suspect came back outside toward (the father) with the gun,” according to the report. “The suspect struck (the father) in the jaw causing him to fall to the ground, and the suspect fled into the woods toward the RV park.”
Brabham said she and her coworker hid in the store for a while.
“That’s when I lost it,” she said. “I felt trapped.”
Eventually they went outside to get help. Deputies arrived, took statements and reviewed video footage, the report said.
The gunman remained at large Thursday.
