June 18, 2010

Goffstown man arrested for robbery

MANCHESTER - Rocco Decarolis, 25, of Goffstown, was arrested Thursday, June 10th, and charged with stealing lottery tickets from a Manchester convenience store after a customer who knew of the robbery offered the fleeing man a ride and drove him back to the store, police said.

Shova Karki, owner of Rockland Convenience Store, told police that Decarolis tried to steal a large display filled with about 300 lottery scratch tickets on Thursday.

"I thought it was a customer. He was just shaking that," Karki said. "I thought a customer was teasing with me, and I said, 'Hey, hey, hey,' when he grabbed it and he took it out."

Karki said she chased Decarolis into the store's parking lot, where he tried to place the display into a parked car. She said she struggled with Decarolis until he ran off, leaving the lottery tickets behind.

"I was pulling back and forth," she said. "He was trying to put it in his car. I said, 'You cannot take it. It's my property.'"

A store customer had witnessed Karki confronting Decarolis, and after another customer told him what had happened, the customer went into the parking lot to help her, police said. When she told him Decarolis ran off, the customer got in his car and drove in the direction where Decarolis fled.

Police said Decarolis saw the customer and flagged him down, saying he needed a ride. The customer said he needed to make a stop first at the convenience store and drove Decarolis back to the store that was just robbed, police said.

"Actually, this man had flagged this motorist down for a ride," said Capt. Gerald Lessard. "The person, knowing this man was involved in some type of confrontation at the store, agreed to give him a ride, but first he had to go to the store to make a quick purchase at the store, but he did this on the ruse of bringing this person back."

When police arrived, Decarolis was still waiting in the man's car.

Decarolis was scheduled to be arraigned last Friday.

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