VIDEO: Man Armed With Knife Robbed Orland Park Gas Station
Orland Park police are searching for a man who held up the Mobil Gas Station at LaGrange Road and 143rd Street Saturday night.
Photos
Videos
A man armed with a knife robbed an Orland Park gas station Saturday night, and attacked an employee in the process.
The Orland Park Police Department was called about an armed robbery at the Mobil Gas Station, 14300 LaGrange Road, around 9:50 p.m. A store clerk said a man with a knife stepped up to the counter and demanded money, according to a release from the Orland Park Police Department.
Surveillance video shows the man pointing a knife at the clerk as he collects money.
The robber then took the undisclosed amount of money, and lunged at the clerk with the knife. The robber made contact with the clerk's face, and he then fled west from the gas station on foot through a nearby vacant lot, police said.
The robber is described as:
- white male
- goatee
- 5 feet 5 inches tall
- medium build
- wearing a large camouflage jacket with a hood, light-colored jeans and gray/white athletic sneakers
Anyone with information on this robber and his whereabouts should call the Orland Park Police Department at 708-349-4111.
Sign up for Orland Park Patch breaking news alerts.
Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.
Looking for more crime stories?
Brian
5:31 pm on Monday, January 14, 2013
A robbery that took place last Friday, being written about on Monday. This doesn't qualify as breaking news, in my opinion.
Its not my site, but I feel constructive criticism should be given. Either way thanks for the update on the news.
Ben Feldheim
5:43 pm on Monday, January 14, 2013
Brian, I put this out when I did because I just was notified about it tonight. If I could've done so any sooner, I would have. I can understand feeling it's not breaking news, but that's how we can get an alert out, and that's what I felt should be done in a situation like this even if it is a couple days after it happened.
Mary Kay Ballo
5:53 pm on Monday, January 14, 2013
May I suggest you change "Breaking News Alert" to "Old News You Might Still Be Interested In"?
Ben Feldheim
6:58 pm on Monday, January 14, 2013
Right now, the only header we can send an alert out under is Breaking News. Thanks for the suggestion.
Barb
7:16 pm on Monday, January 14, 2013
This is the first time I heard about it....so I appreciate the News! Thanks Ben!
P.Y.T.
7:19 pm on Monday, January 14, 2013
Sheesh... does it matter??? Thanks for posting, Ben.
Mary Kay Ballo
5:54 pm on Tuesday, January 15, 2013
Yes, it does matter. "Breaking news" infers that there is something happening right now that you should be informed of. There is no way in the world something that happened three days ago is breaking news. This was just another item for the regular police blotter. Obviously the police weren't too excited about it or they would have released the information much sooner.
Ben Feldheim
6:10 pm on Tuesday, January 15, 2013
The reason why is wasn't released sooner is they had leads on a suspect, and but they had to adjust the suspect's description, whereupon it went out.
Rebecca
8:09 pm on Monday, January 14, 2013
Thank you for this news Ben. This is the first I've heard also. Please keep those of us who appreciate and are grateful for what you do, informed. Keep up the good work.
Steve
8:33 pm on Monday, January 14, 2013
Thanks Ben, people want to know whats going on. I know the police don't release information real fast.
David Daughtery
8:52 pm on Monday, January 14, 2013
This should be called, "When We Get The Press Release Breaking News" I'm sure it could be added.
Ben Feldheim
10:52 pm on Monday, January 14, 2013
If you found out about this sooner, why didn't you tell anyone?
Jim Kotecki
1:16 am on Tuesday, January 15, 2013
Hey robber, thanks for at least not using a gun so we didn't have to hear the moaning about gun control yet again. Though we will now be subjected to the calls for the banning of knives.
Sue N.
4:35 am on Tuesday, January 15, 2013
Thanks Ben for alerting us as soon as OPPD released the info! So sad that after something like this is released, some individuals only thoughts are to complain about how it's titled. Seems very sad & narrow minded to me considering the bigger picture here.
I'm more concerned that the employee is ok and that the police department is stepping up patrolling in the area. Way too close to friends and family in the area to have a violent robber on the loose.
Please keep us posted like you always do with any updates as soon as you get them. Thanks!
Free Speech
6:27 am on Tuesday, January 15, 2013
My question is whether or not the police put out an alert to the residents when this happened. Does anyone know? Or did the pols decide not to put an automated alert out because its so close to the apartments?
Ben Feldheim
8:51 am on Tuesday, January 15, 2013
I'm not sure if an alert went out or not, but I know it had nothing to do with the apartments. They had some leads at first that didn't pan out and then there was some uncertainty about the man's description.
OP Resident
1:31 pm on Tuesday, January 15, 2013
I did not receive the auto-bot call (which did go out for the property tax rebate which I felt was a mis-use of the system...should only be for emergencies only).
Brian
8:56 am on Tuesday, January 15, 2013
I just love the pile on for voicing my opinion. I am grateful for this resource of local news patch provides, but feel that the quality of content and reporting has slipped since being introduced to our area. Breaking News is being overused, and this should be addressed. I am not perturbed about when you released the news, its the manner of alerting that seems overboard.This is simple NEWS, it has had a cooling off period and should be offered inline with the other stories of the day. I just disagree with the need to ALERT a community about an incident days past. To me its a bit "boy cried wolf" and diminishes the importance of alerts for future situations in progress. I want nothing more than for Patch to put our quality, comprehensive news for our area. I just want to push them to strive for higher standards, so they don't go the way of the Southtown/Star.
PS, there were multiple gas station robberies in the area Friday, in addition to armed car jackings further east. It seemed something was in the air Friday, that brought the robber element out. ISPERN was plenty busy that night.
Ben Feldheim
9:45 am on Tuesday, January 15, 2013
I think these are valid points to address, and the feedback is useful. You're not the only person who has pointed out that an alert with breaking news attached to it referring to something that happened at a time that seems too distant to be considered breaking. It's an aspect of this system I don't have control over, and I apologize if anyone gets the wrong idea.
I felt this should be sent as an alert because if someone saw something, or maybe even knows something, it'd help police to have that information. That was the goal, not create unnecessary alarm.
Brian, if you have any other thoughts to share about the reporting or disseminating, feel free to contact me.
Harry Callahan
12:02 pm on Tuesday, January 15, 2013
@Brian, I am on your side most of the way,one thing I found that gets to me is when the culprit or culprits are White we know about it right away,description what they did and more,when other races commit a crime very little detail is reported,just recently there was a hold-up at a cell phone business on 162 nd & Harlem close to were I live,the suspects were caught in I believe New Lenox after a chase & crash,very little was reported on this robbery except the breaking news e-mail until days later before that some people had a case of lockjaw, which was committed by blacks,and the strange part of this robbery was I pass it at the time that was given coming from White Castles,now this is procedure from the large local mainstream media,but I find the Patch guilty of it to.I do like being inform by the Patch on breaking news because I am on the pc quite a bit,and a slight chance it can help sometimes catching the culprits, but there is sure bias at times.Note: on the phone store robbery I did learn there was items that were taken that were tossed off the roadway after the robbery and getaway which could have played into why the coverage was silent.
Davey Jones
9:33 am on Tuesday, January 15, 2013
All this shows is that some of the reporters at Patch didn't do their beat calls over the weekend. If they did this would have been an easy thing to report on for Saturday morning instead of DUI alerts of Home Price sales in the area. Your right Brian, the quality is way down. This is not a typical news source so we shouldn't be too hard I guess.
Ben Feldheim
9:56 am on Tuesday, January 15, 2013
With all due respect, feel free to look and see if this was reported Saturday night anywhere else. As for the DUI and home price features, if you're not a fan, fair enough.
frank
10:44 am on Tuesday, January 15, 2013
People should check out other local PATCH community sites to compare our ORLAND PATCH.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Jon Voight
6:07 pm on Wednesday, January 16, 2013
Hey, leave poor Ben alone. He's a volunteer trying to help us be informed. This is a free service, so you get what you pay for.
Tami O'Brien
7:55 pm on Wednesday, January 16, 2013
I agree I'm always interested & find out alot of information on the patch. Thanks Ben
Ben Feldheim
12:43 pm on Friday, January 18, 2013
Thank you.
Patricia Fee
10:52 pm on Saturday, January 19, 2013
I too agree, I always find any new around town interesting it keeps me informed on whats going on breaking news or not, and I appreciate it. Thank You, Ben, keep up the good work.
S.Pike
8:03 pm on Sunday, January 20, 2013
people just love to complain don't they?