Worker injured in string of baseball bat robberies in Clearfield and Layton
Nov 24, 2021, 11:22 AM
CLEARFIELD, Utah — It was 9:30 p.m. Saturday and Nate Rupert was just stocking the shelves at Cloud X when he heard a beep at the door.
Before he knew it, a masked suspect was hopping the counter next to him and he soon found himself in an intense struggle.
“He got to the front counter when I actually heard his demands — he wanted like everything out of the till,” the worker told KSL TV. “So I had grabbed him and thrown him up against my (e-) juice and so he was away from me, away from the till and while we were kind of going at it, his friend that was there started hitting me with a baseball bat.”
Rupert said the robbers quickly loaded up cash and product and were out almost as fast as they had entered.
He didn’t believe they had been inside the store before.
“Those kids looked like they came in from Narnia,” Rupert said. “They had no idea what the heck they were looking at. They were just, ‘Give me the money, that’s all I know I need,’ you know.”
That didn’t mean they weren’t experienced.
Police in Clearfield and Layton said Tuesday they believed the same suspects were behind four total robberies in a string that began Thursday night in Layton.
Lt. Travis Lyman said from that time to early Friday morning, the suspects hit another smoke shop and two convenience stories, dressed approximately the same and armed with baseball bats in each heist.
Lyman was worried in particular about the escalation to violence.
“The potential for some people to get hurt is really high, so we’re really concerned about it,” he said.
Police circulated multiple surveillance images of the suspects, who appeared to wear black clothing and head coverings and red bandanas or masks.
They said anybody with information should call the Clearfield Police Department about the case in that city at 801-525-2806 or the investigations division at 801-525-2334 or anonymously online.
Anyone with information in the Layton cases was asked to call Layton City Police Department at 801-497-8300.
Rupert on Tuesday evening still had multiple imprints on his back from the baseball bat strikes as well as bruising and scraping on his side.
He hoped the robbers would be caught.
“I’m just happy I was the only one who got hurt out of everything, you know what I mean?” Rupert said. “Even if you are by yourself, have some way of defending yourself, because you just really never know and it happens very quick.”
