CRACK ADDICTS GO ON SPREE OF ATM AND CAR ROBBERIES

Two crack addicts with a fondness for butcher knives and stolen Dodge Neons
are behind a string of armed robberies in Hamilton this week.

Police are hunting for a man and woman they say robbed patrons at three ATMs
in 24 hours and held up a sub shop on Ottawa Street North and robbed a King
Street East variety store since early Monday morning.

Along the way, they have dumped about six stolen Dodge Neons taken from
various malls.

Staff Sergeant Ian Matthews, head of the Hamilton police Break, Enter, Auto
theft and Robbery (BEAR) unit, said investigators know whom they are looking
for and expect to arrest them soon. Both are known crack addicts.

Police say crack cocaine is behind many of the retail robberies in Hamilton
as addicts turn to crime to pay for their habits.

Finding a connection between this week's robberies comes as no surprise to a
50-year-old Hamilton man who was robbed of $380 -- the bandit gave him $20
back -- at an ATM at the Royal Bank at Main Street West and Locke Street
South early Wednesday morning.

"It has to be one or two people," the man who asked not to be identified,
said after the 6:20 a.m. robbery.

"Even crooks don't all get the same idea at once," he said of the string of
ATM holdups.

No one has been injured in the robbery spree and police, who want to keep it
that way, say the best thing to do when confronted by a bandit is to
co-operate and get a good description of the perpetrator.

The Royal Bank victim agrees. Though the bandit got his last $400 from an
unemployment cheque, he saw no need for heroics.

"I was cornered. He surprised me. If it was out in the open and I saw him
coming, maybe it would be different."

He said he thought nothing of it when a man stepped up to the machine beside
him. He completed his transaction, then realized the man had a knife.

"He was obviously strung out on something, but to look at him you couldn't
say that's what a drug addict looks like.

"I said, 'That's all I've got' and he peeled off a $20 bill and says, 'Here,
have a nice day,' " he recalled.

Yesterday a woman was robbed by a man armed with a knife as she withdrew
cash from a machine at the Scotiabank at Centre Mall at 7:40 a.m.

When he fled to an aquamarine Neon with a woman in it, her husband followed
to Kenilworth Avenue, then abandoned the chase because the man's driving was
erratic. Police found the car dumped on Weir Street North.

At 6:20 p.m. Wednesday, a man at a Bank of Montreal ATM on Barton Street
East was also robbed by a man with a knife.

Sergeant Maggie McKittrick, Hamilton police media relations officer, said
the robber got an undisclosed amount of cash and the victim's bank card.

McKittrick said police have connected the couple to a robbery at Harvest
Subs on Ottawa Street North around 5:30 p.m. Tuesday. A man pulled a large
knife on a clerk and then jumped the counter to grab some money. He fled in
a blue Neon.

Witnesses saw him dump the car on Edgemont Avenue and hop into a silver Neon
driven by a woman. Police found the blue Neon was stolen from Eastgate
Square.

Anyone with information on the robberies is asked to contact the BEAR unit
at 905-546-3880 or Crime Stoppers at 905-522-8477 or 1-800-222-8477.