Two men arrested for armed robbery of store

Facebook photo of La Mexicana de Pancho.

By Allison Scarbrough, News Editor

HART TOWNSHIP — Two men will face charges of armed robbery and felony firearms following an armed robbery at the La Mexicana de Pancho grocery store and restaurant Friday evening, Dec. 13, according to Oceana County Sheriff Craig Mast.

A 23-year-old Shelby man and a 38-year-old Shelby man were arrested and lodged in the Oceana County Jail following an investigation by the Oceana County Sheriff’s Office. Their names are not being released pending arraignment. “All suspects are innocent until proven guilty,” said Sheriff Mast.

The robbery occurred Friday at 6:20 p.m. at the store located at 2361 North Oceana Drive.

“Deputies responded to the report of a pair of men who came to the store and allegedly committed an armed robbery,” he said.

A man suffered minor injuries during the robbery, he said. “One victim received some facial abrasions when he was assaulted. There was a very brief struggle. The weapon used was displayed and threatened prominently.”

Mast declined to specify what type of weapon was used or how much cash was stolen. 

“My deputies followed up on several different leads, which led them to residences in Shelby and Hart where they had reason to believe the suspects were there, and they were arrested.” The two suspects were arrested later Friday night.

“The weapon was recovered. We impounded their vehicles, and the evidence that we recovered — some of it is technology-based — is quite strong.

“We did recover some amounts of cash, but we’re still following up with this investigation as we speak. Deputies are serving search warrants on the vehicles that were impounded and used in the incident.

“My guys did a fantastic job following up on some leads and following the evidence. They ran a very aggressive investigation and were able to follow the leads to the bad guys.”

“I was contacted by the detectives working on this matter over the weekend,” said Oceana County Prosecuting Attorney Joseph Bizon. “We have had several conversations, and we are continuing to work on it. The detectives and the road (patrol) guys did an excellent job on this.”

La Mexicana de Pancho was defrauded $80,000 in an organized scam operation two years ago.

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