Radio Shack Robber Spins Tall Tale to Clinton Township Cops

A 20-year-old Fraser man accused of robbing a Roseville Radio Shack at gunpoint may also face charges in Clinton Township for filing a false police report, authorities say. 

Solomon Ephram Hartman was arraigned March 1 in 39th District Court in Roseville on a charge of armed robbery. He is being held in the Macomb County Jail on a $150,000 bond, according to the Macomb County Sheriff’s Office inmate locator.

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Roseville police initially issued a crime alert Feb. 28 for a suspect matching Hartman’s description after employees of an area Radio Shack reported that a man had entered the store and told them he had planned to rob them but decided against it as “they were so nice,” according to the Clinton Township police report.

Approximately 30 minutes after receiving the first report, Roseville police learned that an armed robbery had taken place at the Radio Shack in the 31000 block of Gratiot.

Employees told police the suspect entered the store carrying what appeared to be a semiautomatic handgun and demanded money from the register. Once receiving the money, he fled the store. Police later confirmed that the weapon was a BB gun.

Shortly after the robbery, Clinton Township police were called to the 42000 block of Matter Place where a man reported he had been robbed and stabbed with a syringe, according to the police report.

Clinton Township Fire Department and Medstar crews at the scene found no evidence of the reported injury.

The man, who police have identified as Hartman, told officers he had been attacked and robbed in the parking lot of a McDonald’s after cashing a payroll check from the National Guard at Mr. C’s party store. In talking with the man’s sister, police learned most of Hartman’s story was false, including his service in the National Guard.

Police say Hartman not only matched the description of the suspect in the Radio Shack robbery but was also in possession of the Ralph Lauren shoebox that employees in the first store reported the suspect had been carrying.

Clinton Township police say they plan to pursue a warrant for filing a false police report, a four-year felony, against Hartman. He also faces an armed robbery charge in Roseville.

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