Casco store clerk chases off knife-toting would-be robber

CASCO – A would-be robber armed with a knife got more than he bargained for Tuesday during an attempted holdup at the Casco Country Store.

The man, who had a blue plastic bag with eyeholes cut into it over his head and a white plastic bag over his right hand, pounded on the cash register and demanded that the clerk give him all the money, the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Department said.

When the clerk inquired if it was a joke, the man pulled the bag off his hand to reveal a large knife.

The clerk then grabbed his own knife from the food counter and chased the man away, the Sheriff’s Department said.

The would-be robber fled in a white Ford sedan, but not before the clerk got the license number.

A sheriff’s deputy spotted the car a short time later on Route 26 in Gray.

The driver, Ronald H. Smith, 27, of Westbrook, was arrested on a charge of armed robbery and was taken to the county jail, officials said. Bail was set at $25,000.