Robbery Unit

On a bone-chilling night last week, Detectives Steven Lampe and Duane Pierce were looking for a man armed with a needle and syringe. He was last seen speeding away from a Jessup convenience store in a bright red Cadillac with chrome rims. The man had filled the syringe with a yellow liquid, hid it in his sleeve and strolled into the High's convenience store in the 7900 block of Washington Blvd. He threatened to stab the 76-year-old clerk with it if she did not give him the store's cash.

Police in Anne Arundel County are seeking help finding a man who robbed a PNC Bank branch on Fort Meade Road in Laurel. Police said he walked into the bank about 5:30 p.m. on May 3 and handed a teller a note demanding money and threatening to unleash a chemical weapon. The suspect is described a s white male about 40 years old and standing 5 feet 5 inches tall. He weighs about 150 pounds and was wearing a dark-colored shirt, shorts, dark sunglasses and a red baseball cap. The bank is in the 3300 block of Laurel Fort Meade Road, in Laurel.

Three months after creating a robbery task force, Howard County police officials are finalizing plans to add a permanent four-detective robbery unit to their specialized operations.The unit will be part of a new 10-member special investigation section, which also will handle fraud, auto theft and the grand jury liaison. The investigation section will be headed by Sgt. Karen Shinham, who was in charge of the robbery task force.The robbery unit should be finalized within the next couple of weeks, said Maj. Jeff Spaulding, deputy chief for operations.

A Crofton 7-Eleven convenience store was robbed by a man wielding a shotgun Monday afternoon. Anne Arundel County Police said a man wearing a black mask and carrying what appeared to be a shotgun entered the store in the 800 block of Route 3 South in Crofton around 5:05 a.m. and demanded cash and cigarettes. He made off with an undisclosed amount of money and several packs of cigarettes, placing the items into a black duffle bag that he brought with him. He was last observed running into a wooded area behind the store, police said.

Thanks to a dramatic drop in robberies, violent crime in Howard County decreased by 10.3 percent in the first quarter of this year, county police said yesterday. The statistics show that 36 robberies were reported between January and March, compared with 69 in the same period last year. No homicides were reported in the first quarter of this year; last year there was one in the first three months. "Hopefully, we can continue the trend," said Sgt. John Superson, a police spokesman. Police credit a new robbery unit and a special assignment section with helping to reduce the number of street crimes.

Baltimore police are seeking a man who has broken into three homes in the North Baltimore neighborhood of Guilford and robbed and assaulted elderly female residents.Detective George Jennings of the robbery unit said the latest home-invasion robbery in the wealthy neighborhood occurred about 2 p.m. Wednesday when a man broke into a house in the 300 block of E. Cold Spring Lane, struck an 83-year-old woman in the face and robbed her of property.Jennings said the woman was in guarded condition at Sinai Hospital yesterday.

A 7-month-old girl who was abducted early yesterday from the Inner Harbor and was missing for most of the day was returned to her mother last night after the child was spotted by women near Patterson Park.Lataudra Thompson, 14, of the 3700 block of Springdale Ave. was reunited with Tionnebray, about 9: 20 p.m after two women confronted a teen-age girl with the infant on Hoffman Street near Patterson Park, said Lt. Larry Leeson of the city police robbery unit.Leeson said that when the women confronted the teen-ager, she handed them the baby and ran. The baby was not hurt, but was being evaluated last night at Johns Hopkins Hospital.

Two men, one of whom wore women's clothing, are being sought in the Jan. 30 robbery of a Charles Street furrier that netted them about $450,000 in furs, jewelry and cash, police said."

Howard County saw an increase in rapes but a drop in robberies in the first half of the year, according to the semiannual crime report released yesterday. There were 21 rapes from January through June, compared with 11 in the same period last year. County police spokeswoman Sherry Llewellyn said she could not attribute a direct cause for the 91 percent increase. "We take every report of rape very seriously, and we do all that we can to investigate them thoroughly," Llewellyn said. "All of those reports are reflected in these new crime statistics."

Armed, masked robbers have ransacked two apartments, a house and a motel room - leaving one victim in a bathtub, others bound with tape or lying on the floor - in a recent spate of home invasions being investigated by Anne Arundel County and Annapolis police. Three home invasions were reported in four days, but detectives from the two departments say they don't think the incidents are connected, nor do they believe all the crimes were random. "In most of the home invasion cases, the victims somehow or another know the suspects," said county police Sgt. Thomas Wilson, who heads the robbery unit.

Howard County saw an increase in rapes but a drop in robberies in the first half of the year, according to the semiannual crime report released yesterday. There were 21 rapes from January through June, compared with 11 in the same period last year. County police spokeswoman Sherry Llewellyn said she could not attribute a direct cause for the 91 percent increase. "We take every report of rape very seriously, and we do all that we can to investigate them thoroughly," Llewellyn said. "All of those reports are reflected in these new crime statistics."

Armed, masked robbers have ransacked two apartments, a house and a motel room - leaving one victim in a bathtub, others bound with tape or lying on the floor - in a recent spate of home invasions being investigated by Anne Arundel County and Annapolis police. Three home invasions were reported in four days, but detectives from the two departments say they don't think the incidents are connected, nor do they believe all the crimes were random. "In most of the home invasion cases, the victims somehow or another know the suspects," said county police Sgt. Thomas Wilson, who heads the robbery unit.

Thanks to a dramatic drop in robberies, violent crime in Howard County decreased by 10.3 percent in the first quarter of this year, county police said yesterday. The statistics show that 36 robberies were reported between January and March, compared with 69 in the same period last year. No homicides were reported in the first quarter of this year; last year there was one in the first three months. "Hopefully, we can continue the trend," said Sgt. John Superson, a police spokesman. Police credit a new robbery unit and a special assignment section with helping to reduce the number of street crimes.

Violent crime -- murders, rapes, robberies and aggravated assaults -- jumped 9.1 percent in Howard County last year, with robberies showing the largest increase, crime statistics released yesterday show. The statistics also show there were 466 violent crimes reported last year, compared with 427 in 1998 -- an increase of 39. Despite an aggressive new robbery unit, holdups continued to rise last year: from 184 in 1998 to 233 in 1999. Most of the robberies were committed against people on the street rather than commercial holdups, said Sgt. John Superson, police spokesman.

On a bone-chilling night last week, Detectives Steven Lampe and Duane Pierce were looking for a man armed with a needle and syringe. He was last seen speeding away from a Jessup convenience store in a bright red Cadillac with chrome rims. The man had filled the syringe with a yellow liquid, hid it in his sleeve and strolled into the High's convenience store in the 7900 block of Washington Blvd. He threatened to stab the 76-year-old clerk with it if she did not give him the store's cash.

At Columbia's Owen Brown Village Center, vacant shops and deserted sidewalks have driven off all but the most determined shoppers. And two armed robberies within a week have left store owners wondering whether the center, long overdue for renovations, is safe.Safety is not a new issue at the village center on Cradlerock Way -- shop and restaurant owners there have worried about crime for the past few years. But the robbery Oct. 27 of a Mobil gas station and a holdup Monday at Jerry's Subs and Pizza -- combined with frequent street robberies -- have prompted some business owners and village leaders to press the center's owner for more security.

Robberies in Howard County rose about 63 percent in the first half of this year, and police said yesterday that it will take time for the 4-month-old robbery unit to have an impact.The surge in robberies contributed to a 28.6 percent increase in violent crime in the first half of the year compared with the same period last year, according to new police statistics. Property crimes increased 2.8 percent.Some community leaders expressed concern, saying the county should be in line with the statewide trend of decreased crime.

Bandits, muggers and purse snatchers appear to be getting an early start on their season of preying on holiday shoppers, Anne Arundel police say.Police say they usually don't see an increase in robberies until after Thanksgiving, when the holiday shopping season officially begins. But this year the robberies seem to be coming earlier.Sgt. Norman Milligan, a supervisor in the robbery unit, said statistics for October are not complete, but that he has noticed a surge in street robberies and purse snatchings in the past two months.

Robberies in Howard County rose about 63 percent in the first half of this year, and police said yesterday that it will take time for the 4-month-old robbery unit to have an impact.The surge in robberies contributed to a 28.6 percent increase in violent crime in the first half of the year compared with the same period last year, according to new police statistics. Property crimes increased 2.8 percent.Some community leaders expressed concern, saying the county should be in line with the statewide trend of decreased crime.

Three months after creating a robbery task force, Howard County police officials are finalizing plans to add a permanent four-detective robbery unit to their specialized operations.The unit will be part of a new 10-member special investigation section, which also will handle fraud, auto theft and the grand jury liaison. The investigation section will be headed by Sgt. Karen Shinham, who was in charge of the robbery task force.The robbery unit should be finalized within the next couple of weeks, said Maj. Jeff Spaulding, deputy chief for operations.