Staff report
Police believe three snatch-and-run thefts in three days may be work of the same person.
Stores were targeted in Salisbury on Monday, Granite Quarry on Tuesday evening and China Grove on Wednesday afternoon.
Police are pulling surveillance tapes at the stores to compare pictures of the thief.
No weapon or threat was used in any of the crimes.
Around 3 p.m. Wednesday, a man entered the Family Dollar store off U.S. 29 in China Grove.
Police Chief Hodge Coffield said the man purchased an item. When the clerk opened the cash drawer to give him change, the man reached in and started grabbing money.
The clerk yelled for a co-worker and the man ran out of the store, taking the cash.
He was seen getting into a two-door burgundy Ford Escort with two women.
Coffield said the man is described as being white, with brown curly hair, approximately 5 feet, 10 inches tall and weighing between 140 and 160 pounds.
Since no threat or weapon was used, Coffield said, the man will face a charge of larceny. If the amount of money taken was in excess of $1,000 the charge would be a felony.
A man with a similar description entered the Dollar General in Granite Quarry about 7:15 p.m. Tuesday.
Sgt. R.T. Taylor of the Granite Quarry Police Department said the man started to make a purchase, then pushed the clerk aside and began grabbing cash out of the drawer.
The man was last seen running on foot. Granite Quarry Police brought in a K-9 unit and searched the area.
Clerks described the man as white, about 30 years old and approximately 6 feet tall, with brown hair and a mustache.
Salisbury Police are searching for a man and woman who were involved in a Monday afternoon theft at Family Dollar.
Around 6:24 p.m., the clerk at the West Jake Alexander Boulevard store said a man came into the store, left and then returned. He waited as she was busy with a customer. The man appeared to be counting change, she told police.
When the clerk opened the register, the man pushed her aside and grabbed the money.
The man ran around the corner of the building, according to the report.
A woman, who authorities believe is also involved, left the store and jumped into a gray, four-door vehicle.
The male suspect in that theft is described white, about 5 feet, 9 inches tall, 160 to 170 pounds, with chin-length hair. He was wearing a baseball cap turned backward, khaki pants and a gray T-shirt with the sleeves cut off. He is described as tanned and freckled.
The female suspect was described as white with sandy blond hair, about 5 feet, 3 inches tall and weighing between 160 and 175 pounds.
Authorities ask anyone with information to contact the Salisbury Police Department at 704-638-5333 or the China Grove Police Department at 704-857-7755.