Times Staff Report

LANSING | Trips to two village convenience stores last week landed a 26-year-old Lansing man two bottles of Gatorade and between $100 and $200, police said.

Robert Caufield was charged Monday with two counts of armed robbery stemming from last week's holdups at White Hen and Trudy's Pantry. He bond was set at $100,000 by a Cook County judge.

Police said Caufield is the man seen Thursday in security camera footage at Trudy's, 3159 191st Place, just moments after he had lifted his shirt and displayed what the clerk described as a gun.

Just after 10 p.m. the night before, a man, later identified as Caufield, made off with between $100 and $200 and a bottle of Gatorade from the White Hen at 18202 Torrence Ave., Lansing police Lt. Pete Grutzius said.

Witnesses said the suspect displayed a butcher knife and was last seen driving west on 182nd Street, Grutzius said.

In both instances, the suspect drove off in a late model Chevrolet S-10 pickup with a molded fiberglass cap that makes the truck look like an SUV, Grutzius said. The truck had Illinois plates, and witnesses told police the first few numbers of the registration were 114.

Police arrested Caufield on Saturday, when a Lansing police sergeant biking to work saw a vehicle on 170th Street that matched the description of the truck witnesses saw at White Hen and Trudy's.

"Our sergeant passed the car and took a good look at the man driving," Grutzius said, adding that original reports had transposed the first few numbers of the license plate.

Police ran the plate number and set up surveillance, Grutzius said. Caufield was arrested later that afternoon in the 17100 block of Walter Street, and witnesses identified him as the suspect on Sunday, Grutzius said.