By JOHN M. HOOBER III, Staff
A group of young city residents apparently picked the wrong time to rob an East Lampeter Township service station.
An off-duty state police trooper was pumping gasoline into his private vehicle at Tom's Mobil, 1954 Old Philadelphia Pike, late Sunday night when 18-year-old Paul Allen Caldwell walked into the service station with a weapon, East Lampeter police Lt. James Ely said.
Outside the store, two other young men and a woman sat in a blue Dodge Neon, waiting for their friend.
Caldwell entered the store at 11:58 p.m., pulled out a weapon, and demanded money from the clerk, Ely said.
The clerk, a 50-year-old West Lampeter Township man, didn't comply.
"He closed the cash register and slammed it shut when the robber displayed the weapon and demanded money," Ely said.
Caldwell ran from the store without any money, jumped into the car and fled along with his waiting companions, 20-year-old Aleah Renae Gardner, 19-year-old Edward William Kempton Jr., and 18-year-old Nicholas Rohan Richardson, Ely said.
The state trooper watched all this happen and began following the car, Ely and Sgt. Brian Cloonan said.
The suspects drove west on Route 30, turned west at the Walnut Street exit, and headed into the city, police said.
Somewhere along their route, they dropped a weapon, which police recovered. Officers would not say if it was a gun, a knife, or something else.
About five minutes after the 11:58 p.m. robbery, police from East Lampeter Township, Lancaster, and Manheim Township boxed in the suspects' car in the 800 block of East Walnut Street, Cloonan said.
Police arrested the four occupants without incident and took them to East Lampeter police headquarters for questioning.
All four are being charged with robbery and criminal conspiracy, Ely said.
The clerk was unhurt.
Caldwell's last known address was the Water Street Rescue Mission at 210 S. Prince St. Gardner, Kempton, and Richardson all live at 253 N. Mulberry St., police said.
Staff writer John M. Hoober III can be reached at jhoober@LNPnews.com or 481-6027.
