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BUCKS COUNTY, Pa. (WTXF) - Kevin Twist has been working at the 7-Eleven on Cottman Avenue in Northeast Philadelphia for three months now. The other night he had an experience he won't soon forget when a man came into the store and pulled a gun on him.
"I figured he was another customer so I buzzed him in," Twist told FOX 29 Wednesday night. "Came right behind the counter, pulled out a gun, told me open the registers."
The 19-year-old Twist says the gunman moved quickly, emptying both registers and grabbing a half dozen packs of Newport 100 cigarettes.
"I was like you know what I'm just gonna be real calm, real civil, act like he's another customer and try to get him out the door happy and as fast as possible," Twist added.
Detectives now say this same gun toting bandit has struck four times in the past nine days in Bucks County and Philadelphia. Police say he pulled a gun and robbed this 7-Eleven on Lincoln highway in Bensalem and robbed three more 7-Elevens in Northeast Philly including this one on Rising Run Avenue.
"Same male, same description comes in, usually in the middle of the night. Some of the stores were locked, they let him in," Lieutenant Dennis Rosenbaum of Northeast Detectives told FOX 29.
Investigators say the suspect stole over $1200 in the four armed robberies. He's also taken those packs of Newport smokes at every store. The so called Newport bandit hasn't hurt anybody yet, but police are worried he could.
"Sometimes the store clerk's become victims on the receiving end of a bullet. So we're trying to prevent that," Lieutenant Rosenbaum said.
"Now since surveillance is out he's gonna start getting desperate and he's gonna wind up slipping up. He's gonna do something stupid," Twist said.
Now this guy doesn't miss a trick, he knew the doors to those 7-Elevens are locked at night and customers get buzzed in, in one job he jammed a can of miller lite in the door so it wouldn't lock behind him and he made his getaway.
No one has been injured in the robberies.