Payton Chase Cleveland
Police have charged an Athens, Tn., man and his girlfriend with armed robberies on two successive days at Lee Highway convenience stores as well as one in East Ridge and two in Catoosa County, Ga.
The spree by Payton Chase Cleveland, 22, and Bailey Kristen Roddy, 20, of Ringgold came to an end with their arrest in Chattanooga on Sunday.
Police said Cleveland pulled a pistol on a clerk at the Sunoco on Lee Highway on Saturday after waiting around in the store about a half hour until no other customers were present. He then asked the clerk for change for $5. He presented the gun as soon as the clerk opened the cash drawer.
Cleveland made off with some $1,000 with the help of Ms. Roddy as the get-away driver.
The same pair struck at the Citgo on Lee Highway on Sunday. Cleveland asked the clerk for a cigarillo. When the clerk turned around to give him the item, he saw that a gun was pointed at him.
Cleveland then demanded all the money in the cash drawer.
A witness reported a white male running across a field behind the Citgo and then getting into a car driven by a white female with blonde hair pulled up.
A relative of one of the pair tipped off police they were the couple carrying out the robberies. The relative said they had been using drugs together.
Police began looking for a white, four-door Mazda with Georgia tags driven by Ms. Roddy. The vehicle was stopped and the couple confessed to their involvement in the robberies.
The couple robbed the Citgo on Reeds Bridge Road last Wednesday, then held up the Mega Star Gas Station on Battlefield Parkway on Friday.
Ms. Roddy is also facing an assault charge from an incident on May 3 on E. 23rd Street.
A man told police he agreed to meet Ms. Roddy at Food City to loan her money for her rent. He said when he told her he did not have any money that she became agitated.
He said she maced him in the face, then went through his pockets before leaving in a white vehicle.
Bailey Kristen Roddy