HICKORY, N.C. — Police in Hickory believe a woman is connected to a robbery and kidnapping at a convenience store and a break-in at a church where the children’s offerings were stolen.
Taya McCathern forced the employee to drive at gunpoint after she robbed the Cubbard Express in Northeast Hickory, police said.
(Taya McCathern)
The clerk managed to get away when her car nearly ran out of gas and McCathern told her to go inside this store to refill it. Instead, the victim told the clerk inside she had just been kidnapped and to call police.
"Makes me feel sad right now, sad," McCathern’s grandmother Linda Gaffney said.
McCathern's family wasn't surprised to hear she was in trouble with the law again. Last month, she was accused of smashing her way into this church south of Hickory where $100 worth of offerings made by children was stolen. The preacher said McCathern was a member of the church.
"Just pray she gets her life together because sometimes she is a good girl," Gaffney said.
Police are looking at whether McCathern also took part in a robbery involving a pizza delivery employee. It happened when the delivery person was ambushed in this parking lot 1 mile from the Cubbard Express two hours before the store robbery.
Police believe McCathern was armed with an airsoft gun, but the clerk believed it was the real thing.
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