Crime & Safety

After Robbery, 7-Eleven Stores Consider Safety Tactics

Pond Path location was robbed on March 9.

Saeed Mohammad said the 7-Eleven store on Pond Path prides itself on having a friendly atmosphere.

"It's a family here," said Mohammad, who has managed the store for the past five years. "You see the same people every day."

But at least one visitor on March 9 wasn't part of that store's family.

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According to police, an armed robbery took place at the 7-Eleven store on that day. They say a black man described as six feet tall with a skinny build, entered the store at approximately 3:40 a.m., displayed what appeared to be a handgun, took cash and fled the store southbound on Pond Path in a black Honda CRV. Police said the thief was wearing a red hat – which Mohammad described as a cowboy hat – and sunglasses, gloves, and a dark shirt and pants.

According to Mohammad, the thief made off with $188 from two cash registers. He said that amount is actually pretty high for a 7-Eleven store, which uses a time-locked safe system and typcially keeps only small amounts of cash in the registers.

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Following that robbery, Mohammad said he has emphasized safety by telling employees to be more aware of who's hanging out outside the store and more closely observing people's behavior inside the store. His employees were a little shaken up, and he's happy they were unharmed, but he fears it may happen again because the thief was able to steal a significant amount of money.

"Things happen that aren't in your control," he said. "We're working on it and hopefully it doesn't happen again."

An employee at Three Village's other 7-Eleven location, on Route 25A in Stony Brook, said she has heard of the Pond Path store being robbed before, which Mohammad could not confirm.

"We get a lot of info about how to prevent things," the Stony Brook employee said. "But still, times are bad."


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