A Saugerties man is behind bars today on a charge of felony armed robbery after police say he threatened a convenience store clerk with a realistic-looking pistol before making off with two cans of beer.
The call came into police last night at 10:30 p.m. reporting an armed robbery at the Speedy Mart located at 317 Main Street in the Village of Saugerties. The clerk told officers that a hispanic male had entered the establishment in a visibly intoxicated state and attempted to purchase two cans of beer. The store clerk said that he refused to sell alcohol to the man because he was intoxicated, at which point the man reached into his backpack and produced a handgun and pointed it at the clerk and threatening him before running out of the store with the beer.
A Saugerties Police officer who was in the area of the store at the time of the robbery observed the male, later identified as 53-year-old Alberto Rodriquez of West Bridge Street, Saugerties. The officer quickly took Rodriquez into custody without incident.
The weapon, which Rodriquez was wearing in a holster at the time he was apprehended, turned out to be a replica of a 9mm pistol. Rodriguez was processed at Saugerties Police Headquarters and then arraigned in the Village of Saugerties Justice Court, subsequently being remanded to Ulster County Jail on no bail due to a previous felony conviction.