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DEBARY, Florida — from www.journalonline.com – Staring down the barrel of a loaded revolver, deputies say the clerk of an adult video and novelties store had an unusual way of convincing a would-be robber not to carry out the crime.
She offered him a job.
“I talked him out of it (robbing the store),” Cheryl Hunter told a 9-1-1 dispatcher. “I had him fill an application. I told him I’d give him a job.”
Hunter was working at the store Thursday afternoon, a day after the attempted heist. She said she did not want to talk about the incident for fear of losing her job.
The suspect, Cody Conner, 17, walked into Cupid’s Corner, a store that sells erotic merchandise at 20 S. Charles R. Beall Blvd., at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday and said he wanted to buy something for his girlfriend, Hunter told deputies.
Conner then went to the counter, took a silver revolver from his waistband and demanded that Hunter give him money, according to a Volusia County Sheriff’s Office arrest report.
Hunter said she told Conner not to rob the business, “it’s not worth it,” the report states.
During the 20-minute encounter, Hunter even asked for Conner’s gun but he refused to give it to her.
Conner, who was wearing a hooded jacket and a baseball cap, told Hunter he had to rob the business because “my family is sick.”
Hunter said she felt bad for Conner and told him she would give him a job. She also convinced him to remove the bullets from the revolver, then gave him an application form, according to the report.
On the video surveillance of the store, deputies saw Conner hug Hunter after filling out the application, the report states.
“I was getting robbed at Cupid’s Corner. I dialed 9-1-1. Nobody’s responding the whole time,” Hunter said. “The gentleman just left.”
Hunter dialed 9-1-1 a first time in the store’s office when she went to retrieve an application form. She put the phone down on the desk and didn’t speak to an operator because she didn’t want the robber to hear her, according to the report.
Then, Hunter said she pretended she needed a drink and walked over to a convenience store next door, where she made the call and spoke to dispatchers.
“He’s armed. He has a gun. It’s loaded,” Hunter said during the call.
Deputies searching for Conner went to the address the teen listed in his application but did not find him there. They were told Conner lived there “on and off” and “came and went as he pleases.”
Deputies were later flagged down by someone at Bully’s Tattoo, farther down the street, where Conner had offered to pay someone for a ride, investigators said.
Conner was found at an intersection at 9:35 p.m. and repeated to deputies that he had to rob the store because he needed money to help his grandparents, with whom he lived, because they were “having trouble paying bills,” deputies wrote in their report.
He also claims the weapon he used in the store was a BB gun and that he got rid of it, deputies said. Deputies were not able to find the weapon. Conner, however, was arrested and was charged with armed robbery.
Glenn Rose, the owner of Cupid’s Corner, could not be reached Thursday.