KIRKWOOD
Robbers run out of fuel after gas station theft
KIRKWOOD(AP)—Two Pennsylvania men robbed a New York gas station and might have gotten away if they had remembered to fuel up, police said.
Lonnie Meckwood, 29, and Phillip Weeks, 51, were caught after their car ran out of gas about a mile from the station late Monday night, state police said Wednesday. Meckwood and Weeks were arraigned on first-degree robbery charges.
After interviewing the clerk at the station, located about 80 miles south of Syracuse, and reviewing surveillance tapes, troopers caught up with the suspects nearby. Their 1995 Saturn was on the side of the road, out of gas. “They were actually knocking on doors trying to find people to give them some gas,” Investigator William Dengler said. Several neighbors called state police to complain. They eventually found someone who offered to take them to a gas station—the same one they had just robbed.
“It was the closest gas station. They said, ‘No, I don’t want to go there. I want to go to Hallstead,’ which is a neighboring town. The men bought the gas with the stolen money, Dengler said.
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