Wake Forest robbery fits pattern of recent kidnappings, holdups

Investigators said Thursday that they haven't determined whether a Tuesday night robbery in Wake Forest is linked to a recent string of kidnappings and robberies in and near Raleigh.

The latest robbery occurred in the 6200 block of Ridgemount Street at about 11:40 p.m., Wake Forest officials said. A woman getting out of her car was robbed at gunpoint by a man wearing black gloves and a ski mask.

"Somebody came and put a gun to my head in the garage and asked me to go to the ATM machine and tried to get into the house," the out-of-breath woman told a 911 dispatcher as her car alarm blared in the background.

She said she set the alarm off to scare off the robber as she ran into the house.

"You save up your money, and you buy a house in a nice neighborhood, and you think you're going to be safe," said Shannon Derbyshire, who lives in the neighborhood. "It just shows you that it can happen anywhere."

"I'm pretty wary as a person, but definitely, I'm going to be keeping a closer eye out of my surroundings from now on, especially now," nearby resident Lawrence Yon said.

The Wake Forest case appears to fit the pattern of five armed robbery cases in Raleigh and Wake County in the past few weeks: A masked gunman approaches a victim getting out of a car, demands to go into the house and tries to make the victim drive him to an ATM and withdraw money.

On Wednesday, the Raleigh Police Department and the Wake County Sheriff's Office released photographs of a man they want to speak to in connection with the robberies they are investigating.

"(I'm) very concerned. We have a lot of kids in this neighborhood, a lot of traffic on this particular street, a school right behind," said Julian Terry, who lives near the scene of the Wake Forest robbery.

Anyone with information about the Wake Forest case is asked to call the police department's tip line at 919-435-9610.