WINOOSKI -- The Champlain Farms Exxon on East Allen Street was robbed Wednesday for the second time in three days and the third time in a month, and the store's clerk thinks the same armed robber committed all three crimes.

Winooski police spent Wednesday afternoon investigating the 3:30 p.m. robbery, where a masked man pointed a handgun at the clerk and demanded cash, taking an undisclosed amount of money and the cash drawer with him, Winooski Police Detective Benjamin Kaufman said.

"The person came in and pointed the gun directly at him," Kaufman said Wednesday in the parking lot of the eight-pump gas station on East Allen Street. During a similar incident Monday night, the robber just showed the clerk the gun, he didn't point it directly at him, Kaufman said.

The clerk said that after he handed over the money, the robber ran to the Hillside Commercial Park where he got into a green, four-door sedan with Vermont license plates, where another person was waiting in either the driver or passenger seat, Kaufman said. The car then headed west.

Police aren't releasing the name of the clerk to protect his privacy, Kaufman said. He said police would not release the amount that was stolen in Wednesday's or Monday's incidents until there is an arrest.

The clerk described the man as a white male, about 5 feet, 6 inches tall with a thin build. On Wednesday, he was described as wearing a brown, hooded sweat shirt, a gray T-shirt, gray athletic pants with a black stripe down the side, gloves and a homemade cloth mask.

The clerk told police he looked like the same man who robbed the store Monday and on Dec. 17. The station was robbed in October, police said, when a different clerk was working. A news account from that time gives a similar description of the alleged robber.

Although police had the entrance and exits of the Champlain Farms blocked off with lights flashing, just next door was an entirely different scene: a bustling Mobil station.

Greg LaClaire of Winooski has worked at the Mobil station next door to Champlain Farms for four years. In that time, the Mobil hasn't been robbed, he said, while it happens repeatedly to the Champlain Farms.

"It's happened so many times, it's unreal. Twice in one week," LaClaire said, pointing out that this time, the robbers came in daylight. LaClaire said would-be thieves might be deterred by the fact that two people are always working at the Mobil, the station is better lit than the Champlain Farms and the store is always busier.

Employees and customers in the Mobil station Wednesday afternoon traded stories about the robberies, laughing in disbelief that it had happened again to the beleaguered Champlain Farms.

Michael Adams of Ferrisburgh fueled up at the Mobil on his commute home from Vermont Student Assistance Corp. in Winooski as police investigated next door. Adams said he's from Los Angeles, so the scene didn't startle him.

South Burlington Police are investigating a Friday night armed robbery at Spillane's Service Center, but in that case the perpetrator appears to have been a woman, South Burlington Police Sgt. James Synder said. Police will probably compare tapes of all the incidents, he said.

Anyone with information is asked to call Kaufman at 655-0221 or Crime Stoppers at (800) 427-8477.
Contact Sky Barsch at 660-1860 or sbarsch@bfp.burlingtonfreepress.com