Washington store clerk uses bug spray to shoo away serial robbery suspect

A fearless Washington gas station clerk stopped a serial armed robbery suspect from holding up her store when she sprayed the would-be thief with bug spray, video shows.

“I was scared. I was just trying to protect myself. I didn’t even think to open the register to give him the money. I just wanted him out of my space,” Amber Mahley, an employee at the B&B Mart in Vancouver, told KATU.

Surveillance video shows the suspect in all black clothing wearing a cap and a red bandana over his face. He approaches the counter and displays a handgun.

She said he told her to “put the money in the bag”

Without hesitating, she quickly springs to her right and grabs a can of bug spray, which she sprays at him from behind the counter, video shows. 

She can be seen yelling at the suspect as he runs out the front door without taking anything.

“He just made his way towards the door, and he left,” Mahley said.

At least eleven law enforcement agencies in the Portland area are all looking for the suspect, who has yet to be identified, KATU reported.

“We have what we believe about 30, more than 30 robberies that are likely committed by the same suspect,” Kim Kapp of The Vancouver Police Department said. At least seven businesses were robbed in Vancouver, cops said.

The Portland Police Department told the outlet they are “uncomfortable giving out the list of businesses” robbed in the city at this time.

According to KATU, the robber has stuck up coffee shops, hotels, auto parts stores, take-out restaurants, a cosmetics store, gas stations, and an adult store.

Police said the suspect has always carried a gun during his crime spree over the last three months.

If spotted, cops have asked the public not to confront him and to call 911 immediately. He is described as a male between 30 and 35 with brown hair and brown beard, roughly  5’8” to 5’10 and weighing 160 lbs.

“It’s not worth your life or your safety to withhold money from someone,” Kapp said.