Teen arrested in string of armed robberies targeting truck drivers

Police in Mobile, AL, arrested 19-year-old Chauncey Philan Thursday morning after they said he tried to rob a delivery truck driver at a Food World. Philan was one of two alleged robbers who targeted truck drivers and iz suspected in three other robberies in the Mobile area, authorities said in a Fox10 News report.

Mobile police said at 6:15 a.m. Thursday, Philan targeted a delivery driver at the Food World, but was thwarted by the trucker in this attack.

“The victim took the shotgun from our suspect and struck the suspect with the shotgun,” Mobile police Cpl. Chris Levy said.

After being struck with his gun, Philan took off but was tracked down in his house and arrested.

Philan is being charged with three counts of first-degree robbery, and he could face more charges out of Chickasaw and Prichard.

Earlier, police said the 19-year-old and an accomplice approached three truck drivers and robbed them with a shotgun. Trucker victims were robbed at a Walmart and a Checkers in Mobile and a Southern Ionics in Chickasaw.

In the Chickasaw robbery, Chickasaw police Sgt. Brad Penton said a truck driver arrived at Southern Ionics to pick up a load of chemicals when a red Cadillac pulled alongside his rig and the driver asked the trucker for directions, according to a WALA News report.

While the trucker was trying to help, Penton said, the robber got out of his car and pulled a shotgun on the trucker, demanding his wallet.

“He accidentally dropped it on the floor of the truck. The suspect told him to pick it up, and the driver told him he was not going to pick it up. That if he wanted it he needed to pick it up himself,” Penton said.

While the suspect was retrieving the wallet and taking the money, Penton said
the passenger in the Cadillac was yelling “shoot him.”

“Thank God the suspect did not shoot the victim, but he was encouraging him to do that,” Penton said. “These perpetrators are extremely dangerous, armed, and at least one of them is prone to violence.”

The trucker said he had been at a truckstop in Satsuma a few minutes before the robbery, and told police when that he thought he was being followed when he left the truckstop headed for Chickasaw.

“He had seen them for some time behind him, and he actually thought that they might be following him, but he was not sure,” Penton said.

Two similar robberies occurred in Mobile, Penton said. The first happened at 2:15 a.m. at the Checkers on St. Stephens Road. An hour later another truck driver was robbed at the Walmart on the I-65 Service Road.