Robbery arrest
Horace Clay, 44, of Philadelphia, has been arrested for stealing a woman’s purse and pepper spraying her outside of a local hotel.
On Saturday, Sept. 14, at 11:11 p.m., Bensalem Police responded to the Comfort Inn, located at 2779 Lincoln Highway in Bensalem, for the report of a robbery.
A female victim stated that while in the parking lot, she was approached by a lighter-skinned male, approximately 6 feet tall, wearing a hooded sweatshirt.
The man attempted to grab her purse from her and, while doing so, sprayed her in the face with pepper spray. He successfully took the victim’s purse, which contained personal identification, credit cards and an unknown amount of cash. He then ran toward and entered a white sedan prior to leaving the scene.
As a result of being pepper sprayed, the victim was transported to a hospital by Bensalem EMS for medical treatment.
Bensalem Police reviewed hotel surveillance footage, which captured the man entering the driver seat of a white Chrysler 300 and fleeing the scene. Officers also reviewed nearby Automatic License Plate Readers, which captured the license plate for the car as PA registration LXS6760. The vehicle captured on ALPR cameras and the vehicle captured on hotel surveillance cameras had the same white hard hat on the rear seat shelf.
It was found that the Chrysler was registered to Clay and was entered into NCIC as a felony vehicle.
A short time later, the vehicle was stopped by the Yeadon Borough Police Department in Delaware County. Clay was the operator of the vehicle and was taken into custody.
He was interviewed by police and admitted to taking the victim’s purse and pepper spraying her during the altercation. A canister of pepper spray was also recovered from Clay’s vehicle.
Clay was charged with robbery, simple assault and theft. He was arraigned by District Justice Brian M. Marriott and bail was set at 10 percent of $25,000. He was remanded to Bucks County Prison.
