According to the San Mateo County Sheriff's Office, a Foster City man who was detained as a suspect in a robbery at the Holly Gas & Diesel Station in San Carlos Monday morning, and had been released just three hours earlier from jail on a drug possession charge.
Deputies responded to the report of the robbery at 12:40 a.m. Monday at the gas station located at 907 Holly St. They arrived within approximately forty seconds of the initial call and detained the suspect, Iraq War veteran Charles Patrick Bell of Foster City. Bell, 48, matched the description that deputies received when they were called.
After further investigation, deputies say Bell entered the convenience store at the gas station and asked the clerk for a pack of cigarettes. When the clerk turned his back, Bell reached over the counter and grabbed an undetermined amount of coins from the register, then walked out of the store.
When deputies searched Bell and they found a usable amount of methamphetamine and a glass smoking pipe in his possession.
Having determined Bell committed a petty theft and not a robbery, the gas station clerk declined to press charges for the earlier theft of coins.
Bell, it turned out, had been arrested by sheriff's deputies on Sunday, Dec. 16 for possession of methamphetamine. He had been released on bail from the Maguire Correctional Facility only three hours prior to committing this crime.
Bell was subsequently arrested and booked back into the Maguire Correctional Facility, this time for possession of methamphetamine, possession of drug paraphernalia and committing a felony while on bail.
The same gas station was robbed at gunpoint just over a year ago, when a man escaped with an undisclosed amount of money. No one was injured in either incident.
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