Two men allegedly tried to force a DeKalb County gas station clerk to unlock the area behind the counter by setting it on fire early Thursday, according to the property owner.
DeKalb fire officials said they were called to a Texaco on North Decatur Road near DeKalb Industrial Way shortly after 2 a.m. and found heavy flames coming from inside the store. They quickly made sure the fuel lines to the gas pumps were shut off and worked to extinguish the flames, fire Capt. Jaeson Daniels said.
The clerk was the only occupant of the store and was already outside, he said. Police investigators believe the suspects lit the counter on fire when the clerk refused their demands to open the safe. It’s being investigated as an arson, Daniels said.
The station’s owner, Ameen Hakani, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that his employee was at the counter behind bulletproof glass and a locked security cage when the alleged robbers arrived and demanded the cage be unlocked.
One of them had a gun, Hakani said, and the clerk saw it. “That’s when he knew that they came to rob him,” he said.
The second suspect had a five-gallon gas can, and when the clerk refused to unlock the cage and come out, they “just poured it on the counter and lit the fire thinking that he’s going to come out, but he did not,” Hakani said.
“It’s inhumane,” he added.
Credit: John Spink / John.Spink@ajc.com
Credit: John Spink / John.Spink@ajc.com
Instead of complying with the suspects’ demands, the clerk called 911 and tried to put out the flames with a fire extinguisher. The store filled with smoke, but he was able to get out without injury, Hakani said. By then, the suspects had left.
Hakani has owned the store for 24 years, he said, and this is the first time someone has set a fire in an attempt to rob it.
“I don’t know why he was trying to burn him alive,” he said. “They could have poured gas on him if he had opened the (door).”
Hakani said he wished he would have kept the store’s main door locked after midnight, too.
“It’s really sad, you know,” Hakani said. But he’s “glad that nobody got hurt.”
Police have not said if they’ve identified any suspects.
Late last year, a county mandate went into effect that requires all convenience store owners to have high-quality video surveillance systems installed in an effort to deter crime. Cameras should cover each gas pump, entry and exit points, and each cash register.
The mandate only affects stores in unincorporated DeKalb — those outside of the city limits — which is about 250 stations. Hakani’s is one of those locations.
It didn’t deter crime in this case, but Hakani said police have the footage and he hopes it helps them make arrests.
“It could save people’s lives in the future, you know. They don’t need to be on the street,” he said. “Thank God we got lucky.”
