Boone Co. authorities explain the recent spike in robberies

Detective Tom O’Sullivan at the Boone County Sheriff’s Department said they typically see a spike in crime right before the holiday season starts, so the 7 businesses that have been targets of robberies recently is quite normal for this time of year.

“Many times those robberies are committed by the same person and you’ll get a string of them,” said O’Sullivan.

He said one of the reasons it’s common for convenience stores to be robbed is because they are open longer than most places.

“A lot of them are open 24 hours a day and that makes them an attractive target for robbers.”

O’Sullivan explained if there was a motive for these convenience store robbers.

“A lot of times they have drug habits and when they do it once they feel it was easy and they are able to get away with it over and over again.”

He said each gas station has a protocol as far as what to do when or if the gas station is being robbed.

He said it’s best for store clerks to just let the robbers take what they want to try and prevent something worse from happening.

Several store clerks in Columbia Monday said they have no comment as far as their protocol for robberies.

Others said they didn’t want to release their protocol to the media.