Norwich
Shoppers chatted with each other both inside and outside of the store on Thursday, some expressing shock and sadness, while co-owner Dan Fraser called the store’s first-ever armed robbery “unnerving.”
“It is totally new for us,” Fraser said of the robbery at the store, which dates back to 1891. “I just couldn’t really imagine that happening.”
Police are currently investigating the robbery at Dan & Whit’s, which sits a stone’s throw from Route 5, as well as two other recent robberies at nearby gas stations in Wilder.
In all three incidents, a lone male entered the store and demanded money from the clerk. In each robbery, the man was wearing a hood and brandished or threatened the clerk with a weapon. Police said they aren’t sure if the same man is involved; the suspect or suspects haven’t yet been caught.
“Dan Fraser does so much for this community; it is heartbreaking,” said Susan Howard, a Thetford resident. “It doesn’t just affect the store, it affects the community.”
Howard didn’t wish ill will on the suspect, but rather hopes he can get the help he needs and perhaps “give back” and “make amends.”
Howard, like many others at the store on Thursday, said the robbery might have been motivated by drug addiction.
“I bet it is related to the heroin problem we have here in the area,” Norwich resident Jan Scheiner, a psychologist, said while bouncing a smiling baby on her hip.
She called the robbery, which was the third of its kind within a 4-mile stretch in just five days, a “crime of convenience.”
All three stores that have been held up — Cumberland Farms and Wilder Smart Shop Mobil, both off Route 5 in Wilder, and Dan & Whit’s — are near interstate exits.
“Though it hurts us personally, I don’t think that was the intent,” Scheiner said.
Business went on as usual inside the three stores on Thursday. Customers stopped in and fueled up before going about their days as planned.
Fraser commended his staff for the way they handled the situation, including 17-year-old store clerk David Seigne, who did as he was told when the suspect threatened to shoot if cash wasn’t handed over.
Seigne, a Hanover High student, recounted the sequence of events with a reporter on Thursday, saying the whole thing was over in about 30 seconds.
Around 7:15 p.m., he said, he was working a register when a man stormed in and headed straight toward him, calling out for the cash in the drawer. At first, Seigne said, he wasn’t sure what to think.
“I thought it was a joke,” he said.
But then, the suspect reached his hand inside his pocket and said something to the effect of, “I am going to shoot you if you don’t give me the money,” Seigne said, noting the suspect spoke quickly and swore.
Seigne handed the cash from the register to the robber, who then fled.
Only a few customers were inside the store at the time, Seigne said, and no one was injured. The mood was relatively calm; Fraser was also in the store, and called police.
Seigne said he is still having trouble registering what happened.
“It is something you don’t really think will happen, especially in Norwich,” Seigne said. “But it did.”
Norwich police on Thursday increased patrols in town, Chief Doug Robinson said.
Hartford Police Deputy Chief Brad Vail said this week he believes two different men are responsible for similar Route 5 gas station robberies that occurred this week.
Police in Hartford also have increased patrols.
Robinson said it is unclear whether the man who robbed Dan & Whit’s had ties to either of the previous robberies.
“There is nothing that links them yet,” Robinson said. “We are still investigating.”
Robinson said the robbery in Norwich was “very rare” and “very surprising” occurrence.
Not everyone was surprised that such a thing could happen, however. West Lebanon resident George Chris, who was at Dan and Whit’s on Thursday, said the drug epidemic is forcing people to do “bad things.”
“I am not shocked about anything anymore,” Chris said.
These days, addicts will do anything to get money for drugs, he said, which puts other people in unfortunate situations.
“Desperate people do desperate things,” Chris said. “I’m just glad nobody got hurt.”
Jordan Cuddemi can be reached at jcuddemi@vnews.com or 603-727-3248.