Crime & Safety

Woman Attempts Robbery of CT Plus With Threat of HIV Needle

Robber did not display a needle, clerk used bat to defend himself.

A woman attempting to rob CT Plus Aug. 11 at 12:23 a.m. convinced the clerk of two things that weren't true: She was a man, and she had an HIV-infected needle. 

When Woonsocket Police officers Patrick McGourty and Gabriel Koneczny arrived at the store at 11 Hamlet Ave. responding to a call for a robbery in progress, the clerk and the woman, later identified as Amanda Albanese, 24, of 160 Crawford St., were exiting the store. 

The clerk pointed to Albanese and said, "He just tried to rob me." Officers detained Albanese, and spoke to the clerk. 

The clerk said Albanese, whom he thought was a man until officers informed him otherwise, entered the store while a number of other customers were there. When Albanese was the only person left in the store, he said, she approached the counter and demanded the money in the register. The clerk said he asked if she was serious, to which she replied, "I have a syringe loaded with AIDS, and I'll stab you." HIV is the virus which causes Auto-Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS), the disease.

The clerk said he hit the store's silent alarm, then grabbed a baseball bat and was able to distract her until officers arrived. 

Officers arrested Albanese, charging her with first degree robbery, a felony.



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