Robber apologizes during store holdup

updated 3:31 p.m. ET Nov. 21, 2008

WEST DANVILLE, Vt. - A man who held up a general store in Vermont was apologetic — and more — about it.

The owner of Joe's Pond Country Store in West Danville says the man who held him up at knifepoint this week told him, "I'm very sorry I have to do this."

And when owner Jeff Downs asked the thief to leave behind the one-dollar bills, so that the workers on the next shift would have something in the till, he agreed.

A state police spokesman says no arrests have been made. He says the robber may be someone who's "just desperate, but isn't a career criminal."

As for the store owner, he's suggesting money is scarce in the wrong places. Downs says, "Wall Street tycoons can't live on millions and here is this kid willing to be shot or go to jail for a couple of hundred bucks." In his words, "Something is not right."

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