Royal Farm

A tall man wearing a ski cap robbed an Ellicott City convenience store early yesterday.The man entered the Royal Farm Store in the 4200 block of Montgomery Road at 1:50 a.m., implied that he had a weapon and ordered the clerk to open the register. He snatched cash from the register and fled, police said.The robber is described as a black male 6 feet 5 inches to 6 feet 7 inches tall and weighing 200 to 250 pounds. He was wearing a dark knit ski cap and a dark blue jacket.No injuries were reported.

On April 2, a hearing was held at the Baltimore City Zoning Board to determine whether the zoning authority would grant conditional use for a gas station to a new, mega-Royal Farms store. This would operate 24/7 with at least 12 gas pumps at the intersection of Harford, Glenmore, Grindon and Old Harford Roads in Hamilton.  All Northeast community associations voted against this development with hundreds of outraged citizens turning out to voice their opposition at meetings over the course of many months.  This development is suitable for an interstate or busy highway, not a residential neighborhood of old homes which has been struggling, slowly but with some tenuous success, to revive itself as a viable community with small, locally owned businesses lining Harford Road, including an independent gas station and several great restaurants.  The intersection is a traffic nightmare, well-known to the city, which is now going to spend $400,000 of taxpayer money to create a new traffic pattern on behalf of the privately owned Royal Farms.

A Severn man was robbed Friday outside the Royal Farm store on Donaldson Road, police said.According to police, a man walked up to the victim about 12:45 p.m. and asked for a jump start. He pointed to his van on Donaldson Road; another manstood next to it.After the victim agreed to help, one of the men took out a .38-caliber handgun and demanded money. The man gave up his wallet.Police described the first robber as a black man about 19 years old, 5 feet 9 inches tall and wearing a blue shirt and jeans.

The Harford County Sheriff's Office says it is looking for a man in connection with two armed robberies that occurred seven hours apart late Wednesday and early Thursday at a Subway sandwich shop and a Royal Farms store east of Bel Air. The latest of the two holdups occurred around 4 a.m. Thursday at the Royal Farms in the 1600 block of Churchville Road, the Sheriff's Office said in a news release Friday morning. Deputies responded to the convenience store, which is at the Fountain Green intersection of Routes 22 and 533, where the cashier told them they had been robbed at gunpoint.

A man who asked for a job application at a Columbia convenience store grabbed a clerk's arm and forced her to give him cash early Friday, Howard County police said.The woman was not seriously injured in the robbery of the Royal Farm store in the 5800 block of Stevens Forest Road in Oakland Mills village. Police said the robber claimed he had a gun but never showed one.According to police, the man entered the store at 5:20 a.m., inquired about job opportunities there and began filling out a job application.

The Baltimore-based Royal Farm Stores chain has removed all adult and pornographic magazines from its two Harford County stores after parents, ministers and public officials complained."

NationsBank Corp. plans to install cash-dispensing machines in 15 Royal Farm Stores in greater Baltimore beginning next week, a company official said yesterday.The bank will have the machines in the convenience stores by June, said Gary Fleming, NationsBank's marketing executive for the mid-Atlantic.Mr. Fleming said NationsBank also is talking to Royal Farm's Baltimore-based parent, Cloverland Farms Dairy, about putting machines in another 64 stores that operate throughout Western Maryland, Pennsylvania, Delaware and the Baltimore region.

With two suspects locked up in a series of sexual assaults in the Rodgers Forge area, Towson Precinct police are now shifting their attention to a string of armed holdups at two convenience stores in the Ruxton and Bare Hills areas.Since April 25, police said, the Royal Farm store at 6067 Falls Road near Lake Avenue has been held up seven times -- on April 25, twice on April 26, April 30, June 2, 12 and 18.About 2 1/2 miles away, the Royal Farm store at West Joppa and Thornton roads in the community of Ruxton has been robbed four times -- on June 1, June 5, June 28 and July 2.The holdups all appear to be related, said Sgt. Stephen R. Doarnberger, a spokesman for the Baltimore County Police Department.

The Howard County Board of Appeals has delayed a decision on a petition from Royal Farm Stores to have a sign larger than county regulations allow at its gas station and convenience store at Guilford Road and U.S. Route 1.The sign is in place. Last Thursday night's board meeting focused on whether there was a need for such a large sign at that location. The sign -- 22 1/2 feet high and 47 1/2 square feet -- is 2 1/2 feet taller and 7 1/2 square feet larger than permitted.John Kemp, vice president of Royal Farm Stores, apologized for erecting the sign without proper approval late last year.

Two men were charged yesterday in a smash-and-grab burglary at a Parkville convenience store, and Baltimore County police say they may be responsible for several similar crimes in the area. Vasilous J. Manouse, 36, and Joseph A. Kosyjana, 43, were arrested about 3:30 a.m. near the Royal Farm store in the 8200 block of Harford Road. They are accused of stealing $700 worth of cigarettes after breaking into the store. Each has been charged with second-degree burglary and grand theft, police said.

Editor: Sometimes I ask myself "Why do I care?" I know Royal Farm wants to expand a gas station on Route 152 in an area without public water and sewer. Gas stations leak dangerous chemicals and folks drink well water. The combination of chemicals in drinking water can't be good. I care if there is a gas station near my water supply. Allowing a gas station to expand in this location is a bad idea because it is "non conforming. " A few years ago, the Harford County Council passed legislation against expansion of non conforming gas stations.

A Severn man was charged with attempted robbery after attempting to steal from the cash register of a Royal Farms store in Linthicum Tuesday night, police said. Sherman Jerome Artis, 50, pretended to make a purchase at the store located in the 400 block of Camp Meade Road South when police say he reached over the counter and struggled with the clerk. He then fled the scene at approximately 10:42 p.m. in a gold-colored Buick without obtaining any money, according to police. Detectives from the Northern District witnessed the incident and detained Artis on Williams Road in Ferndale, where he was positively identified by the store's clerk as the suspect, officials said.

Super Bowl commercials are nearly as anticipated as the game, and local companies grabbing some of that attention Sunday included Royal Farms and Union Memorial Hospital. Advertisers know the Super Bowl is one of the best-watched programs of the year — and they're willing to pay for the opportunity, as much as $4 million this year for a 30-second spot. For area advertisers, it's arguably an even better opportunity when the local team is playing. "It's a chance to reach well over a million of their clients or customers," says Jay Newman, president of WJZ. "There's no event that will air on television that will come close to the numbers the Super Bowl will reach.

A robber struck a Royal Farms in Fells Point on Sunday night, leaving with a peculiar payday that only a sweet tooth could covet. The man, described as a black man in his 40s with a light beard, about 5 feet 10 and 170 pounds, wearing a red jacket with white lettering over a black hooded sweat shirt, entered the convenience store sometime before 7:43 p.m., police said. He walked down the candy aisle, pulled out a bag and began sticking boxes of candy into the bag, police said.

The owner of Middle River's Bengies Drive-In Theatre is appealing a judge's decision to set aside a jury award of $838,000 in a case involving lights from a nearby Royal Farms store. An attorney for Bengies owner D. Edward Vogel said the appeal of Baltimore Circuit Judge Robert Cahill's ruling was filed this week. In his Sept. 13 order, Cahill dismissed a jury's finding that light from the Royal Farms store interfered with operation of the 56-year-old Bengies. In his opinion, Cahill said Vogel and his attorneys did not provide enough evidence to back up such a claim.

Baltimore County Police say two men were arrested and charged in a robbery that occurred Sunday, June 24, at the Royal Farms store on Falls Road. The incident occurred in the 6000 block on Falls Road, at 5:31 a.m. June 24. According to the police report, Thomas James Busard, 19, of the 3300 block of Paine Street, and Michael Robert Blevins, 19, of the 1300 block of West 42nd Street, were arrested and charged with robbery, armed robbery, and assault after fleeing Royal Farms robbery.

It looked as if a one-man crime wave was about the end early Wednesday, as Baltimore County police prepared to arrest the man they suspected of robbing the Royal Farm Store on Falls Road near Lake Avenue five times between Jan. 14 and Feb. 20.But as detectives obtained a warrant for Reginald Eugene Cooper, 28, of the 4600 block of Reisterstown Road, another man -- with what he said was a Molotov cocktail -- robbed the store of $50 about 5 a.m."I thought we were going to see the last of it," employee Joanne Harper said of the early morning robberies.

State Police are searching for two men in an attempted armed robbery at the Royal Farm store at Route 152 near Interstate 95 in Joppa, Harford County. One was armed with a semiautomatic handgun and fled in a burgundy compact car, driven by another man, police said. No one was injured in the robbery that occurred about 3 p.m. Tuesday, police said. The men may also be responsible for an armed robbery Aug. 15 at the Royal Farm store in Churchville, police said. Anyone with information is asked to contact Trooper 1st Class Robert Cummins, Maryland State Police Bel Air Barrack Criminal Investigation Section, 410 838-4101 Ext. 316, rcummins@mdsp.

On a typical weekend night in the summer, the line of cars waiting to enter the Bengies Drive-In Theatre backs onto Eastern Boulevard, patrons hit up the snack bar and, as dusk turns to dark, owner D. Edward Vogel reels off the theater's many rules before starting the evening's first feature. But the outcome of a trial this week could put the Baltimore area's last drive-in movie theater at risk. A lawsuit pitting Bengies against a neighboring Royal Farms convenience store and its outdoor lights is being argued before a Baltimore County Circuit Court jury this week.

The FBI will lead the investigation into the shooting of a customer during a robbery of a Royal Farms convenience store in Northeast Baltimore on Tuesday night. Police said the gunman demanded the customer's wallet and shot him as he reached for it. Police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said that the FBI's Violent Crime Task Force, which includes members of the city force, will take over the case. He said federal authorities are being called in to send a message "that violent crime will not be tolerated in Baltimore.