Sugar Land police search for man who held up Home Depot cashier at gunpoint

SUGAR LAND, Texas (FOX 26) - Sugar Land detectives are searching for a gunman who took a cart-load of merchandise from Home Depot on June 25. 

While trying to leave with some high end power tools at a steep 100 percent discount, an employee approached him thinking someone had made a mistake.

"To help him remove the security devices. As she gets near him, he pulls up his shirt, grabs a pistol from his waistband and points it at her head," said City of Sugar Land spokesperson Doug Adolph.

The cameras don't show that but captured him strutting away with the pistol in the air. It also showed him getting to a black Dodge Durango.

Not only does Home Depot have cameras, the City of Sugar Land does, too. License plate reading cameras in key intersections notify police immediately when a particular car passes through.  Many people don't know they even exist.

"Oh dang! They're actually pretty nice. I thought they were regular cameras. That's actually pretty nice," said an astonished Christian Quijano.

That's the good news. The bad news is although the plan is to put a ring of cameras around the city, the ring is not yet complete. The cameras didn't catch this bad guy because of where the Home Depot is located.

"It's possible that he knew this store was in that area, or he got very lucky," said Adolph.

Doubly lucky because earlier in the day he had robbed a Home Depot on Westheimer. Will he hit Sugar Land again? We don't know, but some are thinking more license plate cameras might help prevent such crimes in the future.

"It wouldn't hurt. It wouldn't hurt," said Quijano.

The suspect is described as a white male, about 5 feet 8 inches tall and weighed approximately 140 pounds.  He was wearing a long-sleeve blue t-shirt and light-colored jean shorts.

If you have any information, you should call the Sugar Land Police Department at (281) 275-2540 or Fort Bend County Crime Stoppers at (281) 342-TIPS (8477).