Clerk pulls baseball bat; robbers flee Polish Deli
An armed robbery at the Polish Town Deli was foiled Sunday night by a clerk who brandished a baseball bat and sent two suspects running from the store, police and the deli worker said.
The pair made off with only cigarettes.
One alleged robber, Jed Stout, 19, of Yaphank, was arrested on Peconic Avenue soon after the failed 10:30 p.m. caper at the Pulaski Street deli, police said. The other suspect was still on the run as of Wednesday.
“He asked for money, I thought he was kidding but then I saw the knife,” the clerk told the News-Review. “He said, ‘My family is hungry.’ I said, ‘I can make you a sandwich.’â”
The clerk said he then whipped out a baseball bat and the two men fled. Mr. Stout is facing a first-degree robbery charge, a class “B” felony punishable by up to 25 years in prison.
The other man was described as a white male in his late teens or early 20s, thin and wearing jeans, a blue baseball cap and white T-shirt. Anyone with information is being asked to call Riverhead Police at 727-4500.
This is not the first time Mr. Stout has been arrested in Riverhead Town.
In April 2009, Mr. Stout was arrested for making graffiti on the Long Island Cauliflower Association building on Mill Road. He then tried to flee the scene while allegedly driving drunk, but was caught by police a short while later.
At that time, he was also charged by Suffolk Police for making graffiti in the Center Moriches and East Moriches areas.
