Suspects wear ‘Scream’, gorilla masks during robberies in Helena-West Helena

HELENA-WEST HELENA, Ark. (WMC) - Police in Helena-West Helena are investigating a series of business robberies in which the suspects wore Halloween masks. They department believes these incidents are related.

Around 12:30 p.m. Monday, police say a black male about 6 feet 1 and 170 to 180 ponds entered the Federal Post Office on Sebastian and jumped over the counter.

Police say the employees ran to the back and locked themselves in. The man left without taking anything, but while officers responded to the Post Office the same man walked into Southern Bancorp Bank on Plaza Street armed with a black semi-automatic handgun.

Police say the man took an undetermined amount of cash from the tellers and was last seem driving a white sedan with no tag information.

On Saturday, police say a man in a gorilla mask and gloves resembling gorilla hands robbed Jordan’s Tobacco Super Center. Employees said he kept one hand in his pocket and they thought he had a gun.

Police say the man ordered the employees to get money out of the safe, hand it to him and get down on the ground. The clerks complied and the man ran off.

One of the employees followed the robber and saw him get into what could’ve been an older model white Chevrolet Malibu with paper tag 5C16RO covering the license plate. Police ran the tag number but it had no record.

The robberies are under investigation by Arkansas State Police, the FBI and local police.