Signage at Speedway by the Tanger Outlets was being changed over on Friday. (Credit: Paul Squire)
Drivers heading to their local Hess station today might have noticed something different: It wasn’t a Hess station. (more…)
Tag: hess
COURTESY SCPD
Suffolk County and Riverhead Police released visual images from an armed robbery which occurred on Route 58 in mid-September, asking the public’s help in finding the two men they say held up the store.
Suffolk County Crime Stoppers are also offering a reward for information that leads to an arrest in the case, giving up to $5,000 for information that leads to an arrest.
According to police, two men entered the Hess station at the corner of Ostrander Avenue and Route 58 about 10:30 p.m. on Sept. 13, a Friday. The duo reportedly robbed an employee at gunpoint, fleeing the convenience store with $200 in cash and $100 in Newport cigarettes.
No injuries were reported at the time of the arrest, police told the News-Review in September.
The Route 58 Hess wasn’t just the only Hess in the area to fall victim to an armed robbery recently, but also one of over a half dozen gas stations targeted throughout Suffolk County by an alleged serial armed robber. At the end of October, a Hess on Edwards Avenue in Calverton was robbed; police arrested Manorville resident Paul Tromblee on Nov. 10 in relation to the robberies. He remains held on bail.
Anyone with information about the arrest is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-220-TIPS. All calls will be kept confidential.
COURTESY SCPD
PAUL TROMBLEE
A Manorville man who police say is responsible for a string of robberies across Suffolk County – including one at a Hess gas station in Calverton – remains held on $100,000 cash bail and is due back in court on Friday.
Paul Tromblee, 35, was arrested on Saturday and was seen in First District Court in Central Islip on Sunday.
Online court records indicate that Tromblee is being held on $200,000 bond or $100,000 cash bail. Currently, Mr. Tromblee stands charged with eight counts of first-degree robbery and one count of third-degree robbery.
The Hess gas station — located on Edwards Avenue, barely in the jurisdiction of the SCPD – was robbed Oct. 30, after a man pulled a handgun on a store clerk, demanding cash from the register about 7:45 p.m.
Since Oct. 26, gas stations in Calverton, Mastic, North Babylon, St. James, Dix Hills, and Bohemia as well as Jamba Juice in Stony Brook, Kissed by the Sun Tanning in Islip, and CVS Pharmacy in Lake Ronkonkoma were robbed by an armed suspect who demanded cash after pretending to purchase merchandise, police said. Utilizing video surveillance as well as tips, including information received via Crime Stoppers, Pattern Crime Unit detectives identified the suspect as Mr. Tromblee. He was located by detectives while driving on Sunrise Highway in Brookhaven around 3 p.m. Saturday.
Southold Police announced shortly after the Mattituck GameStop robbery that a link between the incident and the others further west were likely evident.
Mohammed Kahn, the clerk at the Calverton Hess, told the News-Review on the night of the incident that the robber walked straight up to the register and demanded cash, first giving him the impression that the act was a trick.
“I was looking to him like he was joking,” Mr. Kahn said at the time.
Detectives are continuing to investigate if Mr. Tromblee is responsible for similar incidents that occurred recently. Anyone with information about these incidents is asked to call anonymously to Crime Stoppers at 1-800-220-TIPS. Police said all calls will remain confidential.
COURTESY SCPD | Police say this man robbed a Calverton gas station.
Suffolk County Police said on Tuesday that they are investigating a recent gas station robbery in Calverton as one which was carried out as part of a larger pattern, and are asking for the public’s help in tracking down the man they say is responsible for all of them.
The Hess gas station on Edwards Avenue – barely in the jurisdiction of the SCPD – was robbed last Wednesday night, after a clerk said that a man pulled a handgun on him, demanding cash from the register about 7:45 p.m.
Police said that over the past two weeks, similar robberies have occurred at seven different establishments, at gas stations in Eastport, Mastic, North Babylon, St. James, Dix Hills and Bohemia, as well as Jamba Juice in Stony Brook. No one was injured during any of the robberies.
The suspect is described as a white male, about 5-foot-10 to 6-foot-2 with a tall to medium build. Police said he usually wears a dark-colored or gray hooded sweatshirt.
According to police, the man has frequently approached the clerk to purchase an item and when the cash register opened, pulled a gun and demanded cash.
Mohammed Kahn, the clerk at the Calverton Hess, told the News-Review last week that the robber walked straight up to the register and demanded cash, first giving him the impression that the act was a trick.
“I was looking to him like he was joking,” Mr. Kahn said at the time.
Anyone with information about the incidents is asked to call Suffolk County Crime Stoppers at 1-800-220-TIPS. Any information that leads to an arrest could result in a reward of up to $5,000.
PAUL SQUIRE PHOTO | The Hess station on Edwards Avenue that was robbed at gunpoint Wednesday night, police said. The robber remains at large.
PAUL SQUIRE PHOTO | The Hess station on Edwards Avenue that was robbed at gunpoint Wednesday night, police said. The robber remains at large.
It had been a quiet night for Hess gas station clerk Mohammed Kahn.
Unlike during the busy summer months, there were no customers inside the station’s market on Edwards Avenue near the Long Island Expressway on-ramp Wednesday.
About 7:45 p.m., Mr. Kahn said a customer — a man in his 30s wearing a black hat and black clothing — walked in through the doors and up to the counter. The man told Mr. Kahn to give him money from the register.
The cashier, the only employee working at the time, thought it was a prank.
“I was looking to him like he was joking,” Mr. Kahn told the News-Review.
That’s when the man pulled out a handgun and pointed it at the clerk, demanding the cash.
Mr. Kahn quickly realized the man wasn’t kidding. Mr. Kahn said he gave the robber cash from the register and the man ran away from the station.
No one was injured in the robbery.
Riverhead Town police responded to Mr. Kahn’s call to 911 moments later, and searched the scene for the robber.
“They came right away,” Mr. Kahn said. “They’re very fast.”
Suffolk County police reached the gas station soon after Riverhead cops and took over the investigation. The Hess station sits about a quarter-mile into the Suffolk County police’s jurisdiction.
Town police described the suspect as a white male standing about 6-feet-tall and wearing dark clothing. He was last seen running north along Edwards Avenue and remains at large.
Suffolk County Police Department detectives are actively investigating the robbery, county police said.
Mr. Kahn said Suffolk County sheriffs often stop by the mart by while patrolling the area, but no police were nearby when the robbery occurred.
“[The robber] was lucky,” he said.
Still, he’s confident the robber will be caught; the suspect was caught on surveillance footage, Mr. Kahn said.
Mr. Kahn, better known to his customers as Assad, has been working at the Hess station for 12 years and said he had never been robbed before.
But in recent years, he said, the neighborhood around the station has been changed by more drugs on the street.
“I see girls and boys come by, they look like they came from good homes,” Mr. Kahn said. “There’s a lot of drugs.”
Suffolk County police are actively investigating the scene of an armed robbery which occurred Wednesday night at a Hess gas station on Edwards Avenue in Calverton, authorities said.
Riverhead police said they received a 911 call just before 8 p.m., however the incident took place just outside town police jurisdiction.
The Brookhaven/Riverhead border marks the jurisdiction border between the Riverhead and Suffolk County Police Departments. The Hess station, just off exit 71 of the Long Island Expressway, sits less than a quarter-mile from the Riverhead Town border.
Suffolk County Police Department detectives are investigating, county police said.