''No-Guns'' truck stop robbed at knife-point

This truck stop and restaurant is one of several hundred unsafe businesses listed on OFCC's Do Not Patronize While Armed database.

August 23, 2004
Steubenville Herald Star

Man is arrested in truck stop robbery

STRATTON - Jefferson County Sheriff's Department had a suspect in custody Wednesday in connection with the robbery of the Stratton Truck Stop Sunday evening.

Sheriff Fred Abdalla said the man has confessed and it appears it was a spur-of-the-moment decision to take about $90 from the restaurant's register.
The sheriff said several residents called with tips based on a description of the suspect. He also said Saline Township Patrolman Danny Householder saw a man he knew on a motorcycle earlier in the day on Sunday. The motorcycle was similar to a description given by a waitress at the restaurant as to the motorcycle used as the get-away vehicle.

A waitress told deputies a man entered the restaurant around 10 p.m. Sunday and ordered coffee and a sandwich. The waitress said the man only ate part of the sandwich and gave the waitress money for his order, the sheriff's department reported. While the waitress was making change at the register, the man walked up behind her and said, "I'll take the rest in the drawer, too," the sheriff department reported. The man was armed with a knife, according to the waitress.

The man was described at 6-feet tall, about 150 pounds, with gray or salt and pepper hair and a small mustache.

Abdalla said the waitress also noticed the robber had a black mark on a thumbnail. The suspect has a similar mark, the sheriff said.

Charges are expected to be filed today, Abdalla said.