Suspects are arrested in theft of $17,000 liquor-store deposit

An assailant stole $17,000 from a liquor-store employee yesterday as she walked across a parking lot to deposit the money at a bank in the Academy Plaza shopping complex at Academy and Red Lion Roads. The employee was unharmed.

"It was almost like a purse snatch," said Lt. Rick Sysol of Northeast Detectives.

The robber leaped into a waiting van with North Carolina tags after grabbing the deposit bag from the woman, police said. Police spotted the green van around the Bridge Street exit of I-95, and the driver and two occupants gave up without a struggle, Sysol said. Police recovered the money from the van, he said.

Police are withholding the names of the suspects until they are charged. - Cynthia Burton