After three robberies last night, Madison investigators were already busy tracking down suspects.
At 5:49 a.m., their workload grew after a man entered a BP gas station on East Washington Ave. and demanded cash after wielding a handgun. The suspect fled on foot with the money.
The incident marked the fourth robbery in the Madison area over a roughly 12-hour span.
Public Information Officer Joel DeSpain said that with robberies, like burglaries, the numbers fluctuate but speculated it could be due to drug addicts in need of quick cash.
“We have a lot of drug-addicted people in the community, especially heroin users, and they get desperate for drugs,” he said.
When robberies do occur, investigating officers track down surveillance footage to find a pattern and locate a subject. DeSpain added that the robberies do not create “higher-level concern” and that sometimes the numbers spike.
“There’s nothing here at first blush that we’ve got a crime thing, or one or two people,” he said.
Regardless, DeSpain emphasized that local law enforcement pools information so that preventative measures are in place and that when such crimes arrive, suspects are apprehended.
“We have crime analysts that take a look when people are hitting and at what times of the day so that we can better position officers and sometimes predict when the next robbery might take place depending on if there is a pattern,” he said.
