It started out as a robbery at a Winston-Salem tobacco store.
But it ended up as a six-hour standoff, with police officers on their hands and knees searching for a suspect who had hidden in ductwork, all part of what police say turned out to be a staged robbery.
Before it was over, a wing of Parkway Plaza was shut down and officers with the police department's Special Enforcement Team had Syd's Tobacco Shop No. 3 surrounded.
The fake robbery ended with no one injured and no weapons found.
"It was a staged robbery they were unable to complete," said Capt. David Clayton of the Winston-Salem Police Department.
Clayton said that just after 8 p.m. a white SUV pulled up and a man wearing white clothing to cover his face ran into the store. An employee in a nearby store saw the man enter and called 911.
Nearby officers quickly arrived, responding to what they thought was an armed robbery in progress. With no other way than the front door to get out of the store, the robber and an employee were trapped inside. Additional officers surrounded the store, and a hostage negotiator was brought in.
Officers found a woman inside the SUV and questioned her. The woman told officers about the scheme to steal from the store, Clayton said. Two hours after the 911 call, the employee was taken out of the store in handcuffs. He was taken to the police department for questioning, Clayton said.
That left one more person in the store -- the suspected robber. Clayton said that officers who entered the store at that point didn't know if the man was armed. They didn't find the man when they searched the store, but they knew he had to be in there somewhere because there is no back door.
An officer noticed that some ceiling tiles were out of place. What happened next was a slow search for a potentially armed suspect, with several officers crawling on their hands and knees searching the area above the ceiling, police Capt. Bill Cobb said.
The would-be robber was found hiding behind some ductwork, Cobb said.
Police have identified the store employee as Hasam Kaid, 19; the driver of the SUV as Yvette Alcantara, 29; and the man who ran into the store as Jo Bryant Hernandez, 21. All three were charged with conspiracy to commit common-law robbery. Alcantara was also charged with possession of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia.
Kaid apparently lived at the store. Hernandez and Alcantara are from New York. Clayton said it wasn't clear how they know Kaid.
Kaid, Hernandez and Alcantara were being held in the Forsyth County Jail, with bond set at $250,000 each.
pgarber@wsjournal.com
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