NATCHEZ — An early morning robbery at a local gas station left the store short on cash and the clerk chilled.

Sgt. Craig Godbold said at approximately 3:46 a.m. one black male, brandishing a black pistol, entered the Zippy No. 7 on North Shields Lane and forced the clerk into the cooler.

Godbold said after the man forced the clerk into the cooler he asked her if she was carrying a phone or cash.

After frisking the woman, Godbold said the robber took her back to the register so she could take the cash from it.

“Then he put her back in the cooler,” Godbold said.

Godbold said the clerk reported that when she was being forced to lie on the floor she thought she heard a second man in the store.

“So there could be a second suspect,” he said.

After taking the contents of the register, the thief, or thieves, took one more thing that made the investigator’s job a bit more difficult.

Godbold said tapes from the store’s security cameras were stolen when a locked office was broken into.

But Godbold said progress is being made on the case even without the surveillance tapes.

Godbold said the clerk was able to give a good description of the robber.

Godbold said from the clerk’s description authorities were able “to develop a suspect.”

After the robbery the suspect left on foot with an unknown amount of money.