Polite robber sought

Keith Paul

Friday, Nov. 16, 2001 | 9:54 a.m.

A reasonably polite robber apologized to the clerks as he was holding them up. But no matter how good his manners, a gun was still stuck in people's faces, and money was taken.

Metro Police believe the apologetic robber has held up dozens of pizza places, doughnut shops and convenience stores in the past month.

Metro Robbery Lt. John Alamshaw said detectives have probable cause to arrest Richard Travis Brown 30, of Las Vegas as a suspect in the series of holdups, including four robberies in a 24-hour period ending Thursday at 5 a.m., when a convenience store in the 1200 block of East Sahara Avenue was robbed.

"He doesn't get much. He's gotten as little as $15 in one robbery," Alamshaw said. "Some of the victims said he's apologized as he is robbing them, but he's still robbing them."

Detectives believe the robber is holding up the stores for fairly small amounts of cash to fund a drug addiction.

Brown's wife filed a missing persons report about month ago, about the time when this series of robberies started, when he didn't return home one night, Alamshaw said.

"He just disappeared," Alamshaw said.

The robber uses a snub-nosed .38-caliber revolver in the holdups, but no one has been hurt so far.

"Anything can happen because he's using a gun," Alamshaw said. "We're trying to find him before anyone gets hurt."

Drug addition is a common motive for convenience store robberies, which routinely net small amounts of cash, but enough for some more drugs. Once the drugs are gone, the same robber looks for another store. The process is then repeated, normally until the suspect is caught.

Robbery detectives handed out about 100 copies of Brown's picture to street cops and detectives, who hunt down fugitives and repeat criminals, in a effort to catch him.

"It's just a matter of time," Alamshaw said.

Anyone with information in these robberies or on the whereabouts of Brown is asked to call Metro's robbery unit at 229-3591 or Secret Witness at 385-5555.