Armed robber hits Cardinal

Local law enforcement officers are investigating an armed robbery that occurred Saturday afternoon at the Cardinal True Value hardware store on Mineral Avenue.

The male clerk who was working at the time reported that a man wearing a cold-weather mask entered the store around 3:45 p.m. brandishing a large knife and demanding money from the cash register, said Libby police Chief Clay Coker. The robber assaulted the clerk, causing a slight injury to his face, and quickly fled from the scene.

³It was in and out,² Coker said. ³He came in the front and went out the back.²

The incident was the second reported armed robbery in Libby in less than a month, following an Oct. 17 robbery at the Eagles lodge. In that case, a bartender and the one patron in the lodge on a Sunday night reported that a man wearing a ski mask and carrying a scoped rifle locked them in the bathrooms before fleeing with an undisclosed amount of money. The male patron called 911 on a cell phone while locked in the bathroom, but the suspect was nowhere to be found by the time officers arrived a few minutes later.

³I can¹t remember the last time we had an armed robbery,² Coker said, adding that it¹s too soon to say if the Cardinal robbery is related to the incident at the Eagles lodge.

³We don¹t have any definite reason to believe it is, but we don¹t have any definite reason to believe it isn¹t,² he said. ³That¹s a possibility we¹re going to look into.²

The clerk at the Cardinal store was not stabbed but was apparently hit in the face and scratched, Coker said.

Shortly after the robbery, officers responded to the Liquor Store to follow up some information they had received on some possible suspects, Coker said. The information turned out to be unfounded and the individuals at the Liquor Store were ruled out as suspects, he said.