Accused Luling gas station robber nabbed in 3 minutes

A 45-year-old Killona man was arrested only three minutes after authorities say he robbed a gas station on Sunday afternoon.

According to Capt. Pat Yoes with the St. Charles Parish Sheriff’s Office, Mike T. Butler entered the Shell station at the intersection of River Road and Dufresne Loop and showed the clerk a lottery ticket and asked her to check to see if it was a winner. After the clerk told him he had lost, Butler allegedly came around the counter, pushed the clerk to the floor and stole money out of the cash register.

Yoes said a witness saw Butler changing shirts outside the store and gave a description to police. Deputies were able to track Butler down three minutes after the crime was called in. Butler was apprehended at the intersection of River Road and I-310 and brought back to the store where he was identified as the robber.

Yoes would not release information on the amount of money Butler allegedly stole, but said it was only a small amount.

"People who are doing the robberies aren’t really thinking things through and are generally desperate," Yoes said.

Butler gave a statement to police claiming he had a drug problem and that he robbed the store to support his narcotics habit.