$450 Stolen From Westfield Coastal Gas Station During Armed Robbery Sunday

More than $400 was stolen from the South Avenue gas station Westfield Coastal during an armed robbery on Sunday afternoon.

According to the police report, the robbery occurred at 2:43 p.m. Sunday at the gas station located at 801 South Avenue West at the corner of Cumberland Street. The robber showed a small black handgun to the attendant before stealing $450 in bills and coins along with a handheld phone, the report states.

There is no indication or record of anyone being injured in the robbery.

An attendant at Westfield Coastal reached via phone by Patch Wednesday afternoon confirmed that the robbery occurred but that, to his knowledge, no one had been injured. The attendant clarified that he was not present at the station when the robbery occurred Sunday afternoon and said that the robbery has not been a major topic of discussion among the station’s staff this week.

“He just said ‘Give me the money’ and that was it,” the attendant described to Patch. He said that the station’s employees are instructed not to do anything that might escalate such situations. The attendant said he had “no idea” whether there was only one robber or whether the person took all of the cash available at the station at the time. He said the station has not had any incidents like this in the recent past.

"It's very rare," he said.

The suspect was described as a black male, about six feet tall, wearing a blue shirt and blue jeans, according to the police report.

Police Captain Clifford Auchter told the Patch that the police department is actively working on an investigation into the matter and said the department has a number of leads going at this time.

When commenting on the frequency of incidents like this in town, Auchter said the incident is “about as rare as a polar bear in the Caribbean.”