Martin County hotel clerk robbed at gunpoint

MARTIN COUNTY, Fla. - Martin County Sheriff's detectives are investigating an early Friday morning armed robbery that fits the description of one that occurred earlier this week in Fort Pierce, according to an incident report.

About 1:50 a.m. Friday deputies responded to an armed robbery at the Holiday Inn Express at 7900 S.W. Lost River Road.

The clerk said she was standing in the TV lounge next to the hotel's entrance when she saw the suspect ramming his shoulder in the door.

The clerk said she began screaming, "NO! NO! NO!," as the suspect barreled through a second set of doors.

Once inside the hotel, the suspect grabbed the clerk, placed a large semi-automatic gun to her back and threaten to harm her, the report states.

"Shut the (expletive) up or I'll shoot you," the clerk recalls the gunman saying.

As she went to the office, he berated her for not moving fast enough.

"Stop being so slow!" the report quotes the gunman as saying. "Get me the big money!"

The gunman, who got away with more than $500 in cash, is described as a 6-foot-tall black man, medium build, wearing a black hooded jacket and white sneakers, with a black cap and a white bandanna concealing his face, the report states.

Friday's robbery is similar to one that occurred Wednesday morning in Fort Pierce.

About 6:30 a.m. Wednesday Fort Pierce Police received a call about a lone gunman who held up a front desk clerk at the Comfort Suites at 6505 Metal Road between Interstate 95 and Florida's Turnpike.

The suspect in the Fort Pierce robbery has not been found.