4 SERIAL HOLDUPS THIS WEEK DEPUTIES BELIEVE ROBBERIES LINKED.

Byline: Greg Botonis Staff Writer

LANCASTER - Four holdups late Tuesday and early Wednesday may have been committed by the same robber, with an accomplice in one crime, officials said.

In two of the crimes the robber left empty-handed.

``It was possibly the same suspect, but there is no solid information on that yet,'' said Micah Currado, a community service assistant at the Lancaster sheriff's station.

The first robbery occurred about 8:25 p.m. at a cigarette store in the 44200 block of 10th Street West. According to the clerk, two masked men with guns grabbed $4,000 worth of cigarettes and fled.

Less than two hours later, a man entered the Jack In The Box restaurant in the 43600 block of 10th Street West. The man produced a handgun and demanded that the clerk hand over money from the register.

For some reason, the employee couldn't open the register and the armed man became frustrated. He grabbed the cash register and fled - but without the cash drawer, which was not attached to the register.

At about 2:15 a.m., a man entered an AM/PM convenience store in the 900 block of West Lancaster Boulevard and made a purchase. As the clerk opened the cash drawer, the man leaned over the counter and tried to grab the cash - but the clerk slammed the drawer shut before he could get any.

The robber then produced a handgun and demanded that the clerk open the drawer. Because she had slammed it so hard, it was jammed shut. After several unsuccessful attempts to open the drawer, the man became frustrated and left empty-handed.

At about 5:15 a.m., a man wearing dark clothing entered the Mobil gas station in the 800 block of East Avenue I, produced a handgun and told the clerk to hand over the cash from the register. The clerk complied and the robber fled with about $400 in cash.

Investigators said in each holdup the robber was an African-American man in his 20s, armed with a black handgun and wearing dark clothing. In the cigarette store robbery, the second robber was described only as an African-American man.

Anyone with information on the identity or whereabouts of the robbers or any information in the robberies is asked to call the Lancaster sheriff's station at [phone].

Greg Botonis, [phone]

gregory.botonis(at)dailynews.com