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Sandra Yi ReportingGay Hogge: "He said, 'Don't make me hurt you'."
Scary moments for an Ogden business owner when she came face to face with an armed robber. The store owner wasn't hurt, just startled. She's the latest victim in a rash of recent crimes. All of them have something in common, the bad guys were toting guns.
Some police agencies send us daily crime logs. It was hard not to notice the rash of armed robberies. Criminals appear to be getting more bold and brazen. One man brought a gun into a check cashing store; another used a gun to terrify a store owner in Ogden.
This should be the happiest, and most prosperous time of year for store owners. Not so for Gay Hogge, who owns a tanning and clothing store in Ogden.
Gay Hogge, Owner, Bahama Bronze: "In this last year, I've been graffittied three times, shoplifting is out of control, I've had bad checks in the last four weeks."
Then just before closing last night, two men came into her store and robbed her at gunpoint.
Gay Hogge: "They had on the beanies, the hoodies, the sunglasses and the gloves. And they used a lot of profanities and told me to get down on the ground, and where's the cash."
Ogden Police believe the same two men and a woman also hit another store an hour later. The crimes happened just as the FBI released data that show violent crime continued to rise across the country during the first half of the year.
This week alone there were at least four armed robberies at Salt Lake City businesses, including one at a grocery store where one man held a gun to the clerk's head while his accomplices stole jewelry.
Two days later surveillance video caught another armed man demanding money at a downtown credit union. In Murray, one man showed a gun and shoved a store clerk, before unknowingly posing for a camera. Last month, a masked man fired a shot in the ceiling while robbing a Midvale bank. And a man caught in video surveillance was arrested after he pulled out a rifle to rob a bank in Provo this summer.
Several Utah police agencies say they aren't seeing a trend, but these recent cases have some wondering if that's really the case.
Gay Hogge: "It totally changes your perspective of the public at large, just society. It makes you feel like, 'hey, it's Christmas'. That's not what Christmas is supposed to be about."
Police say the dollar store has surveillance video of the suspects involved in the armed robberies in Ogden last night. If you have any information, call Ogden Police.
