Crime spree across Pittsburgh-area gas stations ends with 2 arrests

Two suspects are in custody after police said they went on a crime spree in an attempt to rob multiple gas stations in Allegheny and Westmoreland counties on July 9.

Rostraver Township police said officers were called to the Marathon gas station along Route 51 shortly after midnight, where they found the clerk hiding in the kitchen of a business connected to the gas station. Police said the clerk reported two men, wearing masks, demanded money from the register, and one was armed with a machete.

"The first suspect to enter the building had on what could best be described as a demon clown mask. It was a clown, but it's an evil version of a clown. He actually had a machete with him. The second suspect that came in had his face concealed with a bright pink ski mask," Rostraver Township Police Department Det. Christopher Tretter said. 

Tretter said the men got away with $116 and four packs of cigarettes.

"It was a pretty chaotic scene. The gas station was in disarray," Tretter said.

Before that robbery, police said the suspects attempted to rob two other gas stations. A BP gas station in Pleasant Hills and a BP gas station right up the road from the Marathon in Rostraver Township.

Officers went to the BP along Route 51, where they said surveillance video caught the suspects on camera.

"The surveillance video was actually of such high quality that once they got back into the vehicle, they removed their masks, and I was able to pick up again very distinct facial features on one of them, which helped me identify them," Tretter said.

A few days later, Tretter said police spotted one of the suspects walking in a parking lot in Elizabeth. Tretter said the man, identified as 21-year-old Benjamin Probst, was allegedly wearing the same shoes that he wore during the robberies.

Police said Probst later admitted to the robberies and identified 21-year-old Riley Coulter as the other man involved.

Police said they determined the car the two suspects were seen in on surveillance was registered to Coulter, who was arrested in Finleyville.

Both men face charges including robbery, simple assault and receiving stolen property.