It's a sad comment on our distressing times. A California man pulled a gun out of his pocket and robbed a Washington convenience store. Videotape of the robbery shows the troubled man, Robert Webb, 42, talking to the frightened clerk, trying to explain. Tears in his eyes, Webb tells the cashier that he's just been fired from his job, that he has to provide for his daughter, that his daughter needs medicine, and that he just couldn't think of anything else to do. While Webb rambles on, his 9-year-old daughter, Meadow, stands miserably at his side, a little girl in a pink jacket forlornly watching her father commit a crime.
"His eyes were tearing up. This guy's hurting inside," convenience store clerk Eric Owners told KING-TV.
"He views himself as being in a desperate situation and had no choice," Kittitas County Sheriff Clay Myers told Shannon Dininny of the Associated Press after watching the surveillance video of the robbery. "He stayed and talked with the clerk. He seemed to be looking for some justification or some level of understanding from the clerk."
While authorities haven't yet captured Webb, his daughter is safe with family friends in Fortuna, California on the north coast. Law enforcement officers in California and across the nation are concerned that petty theft, burglary and robbery will rise the longer the economy remains down. Layoffs and foreclosures are taking a toll. The longer people go without income, the more desperate they become -- and, in desperation, some will turn to crime to solve their financial problems.
In California, it's a disastrous choice. California is tough on crime and the penalty for theft can range from a fine and probation for shoplifting to a prison sentence. Because the convenience store robber pulled a gun, in California he would be charged with armed robbery, a serious, violent felony punishable by 3 to 9 years in the state penitentiary. If the defendant has a prior strike offense, the sentence would be automatically doubled because armed robbery is a Three Strikes offense under California law, explains expert Los Angeles criminal defense attorney Stephen Rodriguez. Even if you're desperate, that seems like a horrendous risk for a couple of hundred dollars.
