LUMBERTON — Three people are in custody after an armed robbery at a Roberts Avenue hardware store in Lumberton on Friday that occurred when a store employee was kidnapped and held overnight.
Stephanie A. Locklear, 49, of East First Street; Mark Johnson, 31, of the 2600 block of Deep Branch Road; and David Dewayne McMillian, 35, of the 2900 block of Freedom Drive, all of Lumberton, are each charged with two counts of kidnapping, one count of common law robbery and one count of extortion. They were each jailed under a $200,000 bond.
Lumberton police responded Friday at 8:17 a.m. to an “armed robbery in progress call” at True Value located at 1675 Roberts Ave., according to Capt. Terry Parker of Lumberton Police Department. Officers saw a “suspicious” vehicle leaving the area, stopped the vehicle and three people were detained, according to Parker.
During the course of the investigation, Parker said it was determined that an employee of the store had been kidnapped the night before and held at gunpoint until the store opened the next morning. That person was then made to go to the True Value store to get the money, Parker said.
Parker said everything that was stolen from the store was recovered.
The person who was kidnapped was not identified in the statement.
