Monongahela man charged after robbing convenience store with a knife
A Monongahela man is behind bars after he allegedly robbed a convenience store with a knife on Thursday.
Ronald James Pietz, 23, of 232 Linn Alley was charged with robbery, terroristic threats and theft by unlawful taking Thursday afternoon before Magisterial District Judge Mark Wilson.
At approximately 3 a.m. that day, Monongahela Police responded to 7-11 Convenience Store along Dry Run Road for a report of an armed robbery.
According to the affidavit of probable cause, video surveillance showed the store’s clerk was approached by a white male later identified as Pietz wearing a black hoodie, black beanie, black cloth mask and white gloves with orange fingers and palms.
Pietz demanded money from the cash registers and opened a silver and gold folding knife.
The clerk gave Pietz money consisting of ones and fives and wrapped in a rubber bands, and Pietz then demanded cartons of cigarettes from a drawer behind the counter.
The clerk gave Pietz three cartons of Marlboro Reds and two cartons of Newport 100’s.
Pietz then reached over the side of the counter and took more packs of cigarettes from the display and then fled the scene.
At approximately 9 a.m., police took Pietz into custody on the charges of alleged retail theft and public drunkenness at the Monongahela Sheetz.
Pietz was dressed in the black hoodie and had the black cloth mask around his neck, police said.
He was searched and was found to have the black beanie, the white gloves with orange fingers and palms as well as $60 in one-dollar denominations and one five-dollar bill wrapped in rubber bands and the gold and silver pocket knife, according to court paperwork.
Pietz was lodged in the Washington County Prison in lieu of $100,000 bond with a preliminary hearing scheduled at 10:30 a.m. Dec. 15 on the robbery charges before Wilson.