NATCHEZ &8212; A man held up a hotel clerk with a toy pistol early Sunday morning, Natchez Police Chief Mike Mullins said Tuesday.

At 3:40 a.m., a clerk at a hotel on Seargent S. Prentiss Drive said the suspect came into the hotel office asking for towels.

The clerk said she did not have any towels and told the man to leave.

When she went behind the counter, he followed her, pulled out what she thought was a real pistol and demanded money.

She gave him a small amount of money, and he left, running back toward the rooms.

Investigators looked into the incident, Mullins said. They entered the room in which the suspect was staying. He was not there, but they found a toy pistol lying on the floor.

Earlier that night, an officer had stopped the suspect, and he remembered seeing a toy pistol in the car.

That link led officers to the suspect Michael Chatman Jr., 18, 41-A Brighton Plantation Road. He was charged with armed robbery and released on $20,000 bond.

Mullins said even though the pistol was a toy, the suspect could be charged with armed robbery because he intended it to look like he had a real gun.