PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- From the amount of money stolen, to the way the crime went down -- this was no ordinary "smash and grab" crime on Broad Street Tuesday afternoon.
Jason N. Brown, 42, was inside the H & M Mart at 736 Broad St., replenishing the private ATM that he services several times a week, when a man suddenly yanked down the metal gate over the entrance -- trapping Brown and other people inside.
They couldn't open the front door, and a back exit was blocked by a freezer. As the store clerk called 911, he overheard a customer ask Brown if he had left any money in his car. The clerk said later that Brown suddenly looked nervous.
Instead of parking in the store's lot out front, Brown had left his vehicle across the street by the Calvary Baptist Church, the clerk recalled. A Frito-Lay delivery truck blocked the view of Brown's car, the clerk said.
Their screams for help alerted a passerby, who raised the metal gate and let them out, said the clerk and police. But during the few minutes they were inside the store, someone had smashed a window of Brown's vehicle and stolen a bag.
Brown told police that the bag held $50,000 cash, which he was using to service the private ATMs in his business, said Maj. David Lapatin. Brown said he'd left it in a "Make a Wish" duffle bag on the front seat of his vehicle, Lapatin said.
Brown is the owner of Reliable Vault Service, Inc., a company he incorporated in April, according to a filing at the Secretary of State's office. He declined to speak to a Journal reporter Wednesday, saying he wanted to talk to a lawyer first.
The private ATM has been at the H & M store for several years, though Brown has been a vendor there for several months.
The H & M store has been robbed before but, the clerk said Wednesday, this was the first time that anyone had yanked down the metal gate -- in order to commit a crime outside the store.