Police: 'The Thing' Mask May Connect Man To Recent Robberies
PONTIAC (WWJ) - Authorities believe they've solved the mystery behind the mask after an arrest is made shortly after a gas station robbery.
According to the Oakland County Sheriff's Department on Monday a heavy set black man entered the Shell Gas Station on Dixie Highway in Waterford, wearing a "Thing" mask. ("The Thing" is a character from the Fantastic Four movie).
With a masked person entering the store -- the clerk feared he was about to be robbed. He asked the man what he was doing and was told by the masked man that he was just coming back from a costume party and wanted to buy cigars.
He had money in hand and showed ID to purchase the cigars.
When the clerk opened the register drawer to make change, the suspect reached over the counter into the register and grabbed a stack of $20 bills.
A skirmish happened between the clerk and the suspect in the parking lot -- witnessed by a person who followed the suspect and called the sheriff's department -- detailing what they had seen.
Within minutes authorities pulled over the suspect and found a "Thing" mask in the car.
Police believe the suspect, Mitchell Omarvin Manns, 22, from Waterford, is also connected with a recent robbery that occurred in Independence Township at Jimmy John's, where the suspect was also wearing a "Thing" mask.
Manns was arraigned on one count warrant of unarmed robbery and he's due back in court on July 11.