Plow Driver Finds Gun Likely Used in Robbery

A sharp-eyed public worker found and turned in a gun police believe was possibly used in an armed robbery two days before.

At 8:41 a.m. Feb. 7, a snowplow driver for the Waukesha County Highway Department reported that he’d found a black handgun in the right-of-way between the street and the sidewalk in the 17700 block of Blue Mound.

It proved to be a Umarex CO2-powered BB gun, and police believe it may be the weapon used in an armed robbery of a clerk Feb. 5 at Brian's Gas and Go Mobil station, 19075 Blue Mound Rd., in the Town of Brookfield.

The gun was found about one mile east of Brian's, indicating, if nothing else, the direction the robber fled if indeed it is the weapon he used.

Brookfield city police turned the weapon over to their Town of Brookfield counterparts, and as of latest report had not heard whether it can or cannot be traced to the robbery or is likely to produce any evidence leading to a suspect.

City of Brookfield police, assisting in the initial investgation, had already found a ski mask and a glove thought to have been discarded by the robber in a dumpster near the scene of the crime.

Robbery details

At 8:21 that night, a masked man walked into Brian's holding a black handgun and threatened to shoot the lone clerk if he did not quickly hand over the cash from the register.

He told the clerk he had 20 seconds to hand over the money or he would shoot – then added, “I’m not kidding, I will shoot you.”

He took an undisclosed amount of money and left, going around the back of the station toward the Chuck E Cheese restaurant at 19125 Blue Mound.

City police officers trailed the robber to the tracks of a getaway car — either left there by the perpetrator or with a waiting accomplice — on the east side of Louise’s Restaurant, 275 Regency Ct.

Officers found the mask and glove in a dumpster at the Chuck E Cheese. There were no other witnesses besides the victim.

Use of a weapon perhaps thought to be non-lethal in a robbery is no defense against the enhanced charge of use of a dangerous weapon. Besides the fact that a gas-powered BB gun at close range is a dangerous weapon capable of inflicting a serious injury, the law considers the use or threat of use of any weapon, even a facsimile, to be fully punishable as if it were an actual firearm.

Linking the weapon found by the plow driver to any suspect in the gas station robbery could be a significant piece of evidence in making the most serious case available to the state.