10-Year-Old Allegedly Helps Mom Rob Corner Store

By Christy Strawser, digital director
ROSEVILLE (CBS Detroit) He's described only this way: "Suspect No. 2 is a black man, approximately 10 years old, short, and very skinny."

And he's suspected of helping his mother rob a party store in suburban Detroit in broad daylight Thursday, running off with $300 to $500 worth of scratch-off lottery tickets.

Police Chief James Berlin said he's never see a crime like this before. "Not this blatant," he said. "We've seen things with shoplifters before, but nothing where they've used their children as a co-conspirator like this."

Police say it happened at about 12:30 p.m. when the store clerk at Stop & Go Party Store at 13 Mile and Callahan Streets saw a woman and child "nervously" walking back and forth in front of the store. The mother is described by the clerk as a black woman, 35-40 years old, 5 feet 5 inches to 5 feet eight inches tall, weighing 150-200 pounds and wearing a black hat and black coat.

When all of the customers had left the store, the store clerk went to the front door and asked the two if everything was all right, police said.

Then this happened: "As the store clerk was asking if the two needed assistance, without warning the female suspect grabbed the clerk about the face and head and physically forced her back into the store," police wrote in a press release.

The woman allegedly forced the clerk into a small office area and held her against a wall so that she was unable to call for help. As the female suspect was accosting the clerk, the 10-year-old raced behind the store counter and grabbed a large quantity of Michigan Lottery tickets from a dispenser and loaded them into a backpack he was carrying, police said.

Once the lottery tickets were in the back pack, the female suspect released the clerk and both she and the ten year old ran from the store and were last seen running south on Callahan Street.

Police searched the area and found no suspects, though tips have been coming in, Berlin said.

"However it is believed that two suspects live in the area," police said in a press release, adding the store clerk states the two have frequented the Stop & Go in the past for miscellaneous items and believes they're mother and son.

Anyone with information about the two suspects is urged to contact the Roseville Police department at 586-447-4483