Circle K clerk takes a robber down hard outside Raleigh gas station

A man who police said robbed a Circle K gas station early Tuesday wound up on the losing end of the incident when the store clerk came after him with a bat in the store parking lot.

William Winston III, 51, was taken to a hospital before police took him to jail on a charge of common law robbery. Police said the clerk had “subdued” him.

The robbery happened a little before 12:30 a.m. at the station and convenience store at 2506 S. Saunders St., police said.

The clerk, who police said they had no reason to charge with any crime, told them that the robber implied he had a gun before leaving with cigarettes and $70 in cash.

The possibility of the gun evidently did not deter the clerk, and he went after the man.

In the end, police found no gun, leading to the charge of common law robbery rather than armed robbery.

Winston was taken from the hospital to the Wake County Detention Center and held in lieu of $50,000 bail.

Winston has served prison time for robbery before, and he is on parole until Dec. 23 after serving time for two convictions for driving while impaired.

Winston was convicted of four armed robberies in March and April 2009 and served a sentence from August 2009 to April 2014. He was paroled, but that was revoked in November 2014, and he went back to prison until May 2015.

State records show several other previous convictions, including one for common law robbery in 1998.

This story was originally published November 21, 2017 at 8:10 AM with the headline "Circle K clerk takes a robber down hard outside Raleigh gas station."