Staff Writer

The armed robbery of a Union check cashing business may have been committed by the same man responsible for similar crimes in the Columbia area, authorities say.

Friday around 5:30 p.m. the manager and district manager of Check Into Cash on 403 North Duncan By-Pass said they were working when a white man with a bandana over his face entered the front door with a pistol pointed at them. Employees told Sgt. David Brewington that the robber ordered them to get down on the floor. He then went into the cash drawers and emptied them.

The man then went to the manager's desk and looked for more cash, but there was none there. He pointed the pistol at the manager's head and said he was “only going to ask one time where the hidden money was.”

The manager told the robber the money was in a back room. The robber told the employees to crawl back to the back room, which they did. The robber took the money and ordered the employees to go into a restroom. The robber took a video surveillance tape from a camera and left.

Capt. Freddie Gault, Cpl. Tommy Hart, Reserve Officer Larry Yarbrough and Officer Al Griffin arrived and public safety officers and Union County sheriff's deputies set up a perimeter around the property. County K-9 Officer Roy Brackins and his bloodhound tracked the robber's trail from the rear door. The dog followed a trail to the former Taco Bell restaurant and then lost the track at the drive-through area.

A money bag was found on the floor of Check Into Cash containing a check from Provident Bank the robber had left behind.

The district manager told officers there has been a pattern of robberies at other Check Into Cash location in West Columbia, Lexington, Irmo and Florence. The man in these robberies matched the description of the Union robber.

“He seemed to know the store as well as the employees did,” Chief Sam White said.