News Summary

MIDDLETOWN — James Prestel just wanted to fill up, but instead he broke up a robbery and was shot at trying to follow the suspects who pistol-whipped another customer.

"It happened really fast," Prestel said from his home in Camden Monday afternoon. "It was a shocker."

Two men wearing white ski masks and armed with a handgun used the weapon to beat customer Tonya Cole and then force her inside the Shamrock Station on Central Avenue at about 6:24 a.m., police said.

The men then punched clerk Sherry Maupin in the face and forced both women into a back room of the former Clark station.

That's about when Prestel, who just finished a shift at AK Steel Corp., where he works for a power washing company, pulled in to fill up his tank.

"I was just there for the cheap gas and this is what happened," Prestel said.

Prestel saw the women being beaten and started to honk his car horn, trying to scare the robbers away.

"I just wanted them to know they were being watched," he said.

The men ran from the scene, but not before grabbing a cash box filled with about $300, according to police.

Prestel followed them in his car down Charles Street toward Manchester

Avenue.

"I thought I might be able chase them down and see their car," he said.

But one of the men turned and fired at Prestel's car. He admits the shot scared him a little.

"I thought about it later and maybe it was a dumb idea," he said.

But he said he doesn't regret breaking up the robbery.

"If it's going to help someone not get hurt, sure I would do it again," he said. "I guess it's just the way I am. I don't like seeing a thief."

Cole was treated and released from Middletown Regional Hospital. There were no other injuries reported.

Police have no suspects in the robbery, which is the third at the gas station this year, and the 11th in the past two years.

Anyone with information is asked to call Middletown police Detective Frank Hensley at (513) 425-7786.

Contact this reporter at (513) 705-2845 or cmagan@coxohio.com.