What happened?
HOUSTON – A man was robbed at a northwest Houston store while he was working last week.
Ryan Gloria was loading his van Tuesday in the parking lot of the Target on U.S. 290 at Tidwell Road when he said an armed man approached him and demanded his valuables.
How it happened
Gloria drives between stores to service commercial beverage machines.
He said he was ambushed by the armed man when he turned his back while he was loading equipment into his van.
"'Give me your ******* money, give me your wallet, give me what you have.' And, I mean honestly, when I realized he had a gun, my eyes were fixed on the gun. I wanted to make sure he didn't do nothing with it," Gloria said.
Caught on camera
A man who was eating lunch in his car in the parking lot saw the suspect before he got to Gloria's van.
He said he thought it was odd that the man was wearing a hoodie on a hot day, so he started recording with the camera on his phone.
The video shows that the robbery only took about five to six seconds. The robber then ran to a silver Toyota and left the scene.
After the robbery
Gloria said he considers himself lucky.
"I was able to walk away with my life and all he got was a credit card and some cash," he said.
Someone attempted to use the stolen credit card about an hour after the robbery, but Gloria's wife had already reported it stolen.
Gloria said he'd like to see the suspect get caught before someone gets hurt.
"He was a young kid. He was maybe 18 to 20 years old. It's not too late for him to change course and maybe go down a different path," Gloria said.