Man sentenced for parking lot robbery
By: Carl Hessler, Jr.
A Souderton man has been sentenced to jail for his role in the strong-arm robbery of a woman on the parking lot of a Towamencin grocery store.
Charles Thompson, 41, of the 100 block of Main Street, was sentenced in Montgomery County Court to 11 ½ to 23 months in the county jail, to be followed by four years' probation, after he pleaded guilty to a felony robbery charge in connection with the July 2008 incident on the parking lot of the Towamencin Acme on West Main Street.
President Judge Richard J. Hodgson, who accepted a plea agreement in the case, also ordered Thompson to pay a total of $2,748 in restitution to the Lansdale woman who was robbed and whose credit cards Thompson and another man used after the robbery.
Court documents indicate the 36-year-old woman was loading groceries in the trunk of her car about 11 p.m. July 16, 2008, when a man approached her from behind and asked her if she needed help with the groceries.
The man, later identified as Thompson, then grabbed the woman's purse that was draped over the woman's shoulder, police said.
"While this subject was grabbing the purse, the victim was knocked to the ground and dragged on the pavement. The victim sustained lacerations to her foot and arms and bruising to her arms," Towamencin Detective James Hanrahan wrote in the arrest affidavit.
Thompson then fled on foot and was picked up a short time later by Lewis Baker Jr., who was driving a vehicle on Columbia Avenue, according to the arrest affidavit.
Thompson and Baker then drove to a BP gas station in Upper Gwynedd where the woman's credit card was used to purchase gas, police alleged. The pair also tried unsuccessfully to use the woman's credit card at a Wawa store on Germantown Pike in East Norriton, according to the arrest affidavit.
Police eventually developed Thompson and Baker as suspects in connection with the incident. Baker subsequently told police that he and Thompson eventually drove to Norristown where they discarded the purse in a Dumpster in the area of Main and Lafayette streets.
Days later, the woman was able to identify Thompson in a police photo array as the man who robbed her, court papers indicate.
Baker, 44, of the 100 block of Hillside Court, North Wales, previously pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges of receiving stolen property and access device fraud, or unauthorized use of a credit card, in connection with the incident.
Baker remains free on own recognizance bail while awaiting sentencing in the matter, court records indicate.
Thompson also pleaded guilty to a charge of theft by unlawful taking in connection with an unrelated incident during which he stole a motorized bicycle in Franconia Township on July 25, 2008. The theft was linked to Thompson after authorities traced the bicycle to a Norristown pawn shop where Thompson sold the bicycle for $60, according to the arrest affidavit.
