Detroit: Woman and Boy Walk Into Party Store as a Duo, They Walk Out as Violent Crooks

A store clerk at a Stop & Go Party Store in Roseville, Mich., asked a woman and her 10-year-old son if everything was OK. They'd been pacing the store, and finally were the only customers left.

Credit: Shutterstock

The clerk could never have expected what happened next.

Police are searching for the mother-son duo. Their alleged crime? Robbery. The stolen item? Lottery tickets.

“As the store clerk was asking if the two needed assistance, without warning the female suspect grabbed the clerk about the face and head and physically forced her back into the store,” Roseville police wrote in a press release.

While the woman allegedly forced the clerk into a small office, holding her against a wall so she was unable to call for help, the 10-year-old went behind the store counter and grabbed $300 to $500 worth of Michigan lottery tickets from a dispenser and crammed then into a backpack, CBS Detroit reported. At that point, the woman released the clerk and took off with her son.

Roseville Police Chief James Berlin told CBS Detroit he’s never see a crime like this before.

“Not this blatant,” he said. “We’ve seen things with shoplifters before, but nothing where they’ve used their children as a co-conspirator like this.”

The police don't know who the suspects are at this point, but have a description by the store clerk. The woman is black, 35 to 40 years old, 5 feet 5 inches to 5 feet eight inches tall, weighing 150 to 200 pounds and wearing a black hat and black coat.

The police press release says, “Suspect No. 2 is a black man, approximately 10 years old, short, and very skinny.”

(H/T CBS Detroit)

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