WHITEHALL — Anyone entering the Wesco gas station on Colby Road in Whitehall early Monday morning might have thought they’d walked onto a film set.

There was makeup, a man in costume, plenty of tension and drama — even a camera recording it all.

But the ending was bad for 22-year-old Joshua Black, who is charged with trying to hold up the station while wearing an elaborate disguise including black face paint, a bright orange Detroit Tigers jacket, and a bandanna.

As it turns out, his disguise might have been too good. The gas station clerk mistook him for a familiar longtime customer and assumed the robbery attempt was a joke, said Whitehall Police Lt. Brandon Mahoney.

Mahoney described the would-be robbery — which occurred about 1:43 a.m. Monday at the gas station at 203 E. Colby — as “a very strange set of circumstances.”

Black — of 204 S. Mears, but originally from the Manistee area — walked out of the gas station empty-handed that morning, but was arrested later in the day. He admitted to the robbery attempt, Mahoney said.

He was arraigned Tuesday before Muskegon County 60th District Court Judge Richard J. Pasarela on one count of attempted unarmed robbery, a felony. Pasarela set his bond at $10,000 cash or surety and scheduled his preliminary examination for 10 a.m. Dec. 14.

The robbery attempt was captured on video by the business’ surveillance camera.

Mahoney said the video shows the suspect, later identified as Black, walking into the Wesco station wearing a not-so-subtle “bright, orange Detroit Tigers jacket,” a hood, a stocking cap, sunglasses and a bandana covering part of his face.

Black, who is a white man, also painted a portion of his face black “to conceal his race,” Mahoney said.

When Black entered the station, he approached a clerk who was waiting on a female customer, Mahoney said.

The clerk thought the man was a “regular customer” — a black man — whom she knows and “jokes with,” Mahoney said.

So when Black demanded money, the woman told him to “cut it out” and says, “I know who you are,” Mahoney said.

The clerk then finished waiting on the female customer and resumed talking to Black.

“The man again demands money. The woman asks, ‘Is this for real?’’” Mahoney said.

Black then pulled down the bandanna and the clerk realized it wasn’t who she thought it was, Mahoney said.

At that point, Black realized he had revealed his identity and “tried to play it off as a joke,” Mahoney said, and the clerk “never gave him anything.”

“He thought he was busted so he starts to play it like a joke. As he leaves, he says, ‘I hope you didn’t hit the alarm,’” Mahoney said.

The man then left the gas station and an older woman — who had been standing near him during the incident — left shortly after, Mahoney said.

The clerk then contacted authorities.

The same woman seen in the video near Black returned to the Wesco station around 4 p.m. Monday and asked to use the phone.

When the clerk at the store Monday afternoon recognized the woman from the surveillance video, authorities were contacted.

The woman — who told police she is Black’s mother — was interviewed by authorities and said she just happened to be with her son during the incident and had no idea he would attempt to rob the place.

Officers then caught up with Black at the home he shares with his mother, and he admitted trying to rob the gas station, Mahoney said. The disguise Black wore was found at the home, he said.

Email Heather Lynn Peters: hpeter@muskegonchronicle.com