Update: Suspect in Sugar City robbery taken into custody

A man is in custody after sheriff’s deputies say he robbed a Sugar City gas station Monday afternoon.

Shortly after 1 p.m. a man with a ski mask and a gun held up a clerk and a customer at Brad’s Exxon.

Brad Orme has owned the gas station for 13 years, and never had an armed robbery.

“I was upset I wasn’t there when it happened,” said Orme. “I feel like maybe I could have done something about it.”

Orme said the clerk initially thought it was a joke, but quickly realized it wasn’t when the suspect turned the gun on both of them. After taking money from the customer’s wallet and the cash register, the suspect fled on foot.

Madison County Sheriff Roy Klingler said the robbery could have gone far worse.

“More and more people are carrying concealed weapons,” said Klingler. “This guy could have ended up dead on the floor right there.”

Klingler said dispatch was immediately called when the suspect left.

“Deputies arrived on scene and immediately started tracking what they believed was the suspect’s footprints,” said Klingler.

Those footprints led deputies to a dumpster just three blocks away from Brad’s Exxon. They found the suspect hiding inside and made another discovery. Klingler said the weapon the suspect had used was an airsoft gun.

“The gun appears to be an airsoft gun, but it looks real,” said Klingler. “There was no other coloring on it that made it look different.”

With the money returned, nobody hurt and the suspect in custody, Sugar City went from sour back to sweet in only an hour.

“We’re very, very glad we got this guy in custody, and hopefully it’ll send a message to other people that if you want to try and do this kind of stuff you’re going to get caught one way or the other,” said Klingler.

The Madison County Sheriff’s Office has not yet released the suspect’s name.