Police: Suspect warns of own robbery attempt

Franklin police said Monday they arrested a suspect in the armed robbery of a gas station about five hours after he told a clerk he would rob the place and about two hours after he actually did.

About 4 p.m. the man told a clerk at Swifty Gas Station, 650 Madison St., that “he was going to come back and rob the gas station,” Franklin police said in a news release. The clerk called police to report the robbery after writing down part of the license plate on a black SUV before the suspect drove off. . The clerk described the man has having a long goatee.

Franklin police Lt. Kerry Atwood said police sent a patrol car to monitor the gas station. But it wasn’t enough to stop the robber from coming back just after 7 p.m. Atwood said the man darted out of an alley and robbed the clerk at gunpoint before sprinting away.

The officer “must have glanced away and didn’t see it. It was such a short time,” Atwood said. “From the time he appeared to the time he disappeared, it was 10 seconds.”

Atwood said officers arrived seconds afterward, but by then the suspect fled on foot, leading to a police search of the area.

Franklin police received security video and identified the man and his black SUV. Two hours later at around 9 p.m., they found the man, 24-year-old Eric Logan Steffey, inside the SUV.

Steffey is charged with armed robbery and was taken to the Johnson County Jail on a $40,000 bond.

Call Star reporter Jill Disis at (317) 444-6137. Follow her on Twitter: @jdisis