Region’s robberies down, but not enough for the victims

Kaaron Riddick, general manager at Aaron’s, a sales and lease furniture store on Norfolk’s Little Creek Road, was puzzled when a co-worker dashed into his office. Then he saw the masked man close on her heels.

The man pointed a semiautomatic handgun.

“Where’s the money at?” he demanded. Two other masked men loomed.

That Jan. 10 evening, the workers faced what bank tellers, convenience store clerks, delivery men and ordinary people encounter daily in South Hampton Roads – robbers who use menace, surprise, and in some instances, weapons, to steal .

“You’re scared for your life,” Riddick said later. “You’re scared to even move.”

Police departments in Norfolk, Portsmouth, Suffolk, Chesapeake and Virginia Beach tallied 2,024 robberies last year in businesses, neighborhoods and other locations. That represents an overall 9 percent decline from the previous year. However, some local police say they’re noticing another trend: T he robbers are becoming younger.

Figures from the state Department of Juvenile Justice show that between fiscal years 2002 and 2007, the number of juveniles charged with robbery statewide increased 35 percent, to 925. In Virginia Beach and Portsmouth, the numbers doubled, respectively to 86 and 38. Norfolk’s numbers also nearly doubled, to 90 people charged.

Few of the crimes, however, such as the robbery at Aaron’s, lead the evening newscasts. If the victims are lucky, the incidents end quickly with no one hurt.

But that’s not always true.

Dominic Young, 15, was fatally shot in November during a robbery at a Norfolk restaurant. Dawn Weiss, 30, was paralyzed last May by a bullet as she tried to escape a robbery with her two young children.

Other recent victims include a Virginia Beach police officer and a television news reporter. They were robbed at gunpoint in Norfolk’s Ghent neighborhood last year.

Police pursue the cases vigorously, said Sgt. Shaun Squyres, who heads Norfolk’s robbery squad.

Investigators look for similarities in cases, routinely meeting with colleagues in neighboring cities to compare notes. Many robbers are seasoned. Few do just one – so a break in one case could crack others.

Squyres said he, too, is finding younger people involved in the crimes. For those in gangs, robberies are a way to show bravado.

A conviction can bring weighty sentences, even for juveniles. In the Weiss case, in which four youths ages 15 to 18 were involved, three of the four defendants got terms of greater than life in prison.

Investigators look for evidence in forensic clues, images captured by surveillance cameras, and chance witnesses who could get a license plate number. Robbers also have been betrayed by odd details, such as a man charged in a case Norfolk police attributed to the “Toothless Bandit.”

Another Norfolk defendant was charged when a detective remembered his distinctive modus operandi – the suspect would caus e a fender bender, then rob the other driver, Squyres said.

Norfolk police typically solve more than four in 10 cases, Squyres said, and arrested 248 people last year on robbery-related charges.

Even if they are not physically hurt, victims are all too aware of what can happen.

One early morning in August 2006, Holt W. “Billy” Butt was walking from his pickup outside the Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office in downtown Portsmouth, where he was then-administrator. He heard a voice commanding him to get back into his truck. He turned to see a gun pointing at his face.

The robber, a clean-cut man, calmly thumbed through Butt’s wallet, using a towel to wipe everything he touched. The wallet held a debit card for TowneBank, around the corner.

“Drive to the bank and make a withdrawal,” the robber ordered.

“I was pleading with him, 'Don’t shoot me,’ ” Butt recalled. He told the robber he wanted to see his family again.

The robber held up Butt’s driver’s license. “I know where you live,” he said.

Butt withdrew several hundred dollars and drove the robber back to his car. He watched the driver get into a late model Nissan with paper tags

“I was very angry at first,” Butt said. “You have lasting feelings of fear, and 'How did this happen to me?’ ”

Portsmouth police Sgt. Steve Goldman, who oversees that city’s robbery detectives, said victims should stay calm, pay attention to details that can help police catch the robbers – and give them what they want. “There are few material things I possess that I’d want to fight for my life for,” Goldman said.

At Aaron’s, investigators recorded statements from witnesses while the scene was still fresh. “There’s nothing really comforting I can tell you,” Detective Daryl Jarvis told one employee. “I can tell you we’re going to do everything we can to put them in jail.”

Detectives viewed surveillance images and searched for evidence. A K-9 tracked the robbers from the door until the scent disappeared.

While the detectives were still in the store, dispatchers put out a new robbery call: T hree men matching the same general description of the men who just robbed Aaron’s had hit a Subway on Granby Street.

Several detectives headed out the door. Jarvis shook his head. “We’ve got to get these guys,” he said.

Amy Jeter contributed to this report.

Matthew Roy, (757) 446-2540, matthew.roy@pilotonline.com