Woman Dressed as Man Robs Utah Payday Loan Store

Not your average payday loan store robbery

I have read a lot of stories about payday loan stores being robbed. A striking majority follow exactly the same plot: One or two men with a gun go into payday loan store, demand money, flee with an undisclosed amount of cash, police seek suspects.

Because of changing and improving technology in payday loan store security systems, more suspects are being caught nowadays. But for the most part, the rest of the story remains the same. I’ve been reading every payday loan store robbery story that comes across my desk since mid-December, and this is the first time I’ve read a story about a woman robbing a payday loan store.

A man’s game

Though the police reported that the person who walked into a Checkline store in Ogden, Utah, and demanded cash was a woman, the robber still dressed as a man. The woman, who approached the Checkline employee from behind as she was opening the store held a black handgun and demanded money from the safe.

The Salt Lake Tribune reports:

The clerk handed over the money in a plastic bag the robber gave her. The woman left and a witness told police she met a man waiting outside the shop. The pair crossed 21st Street and got into a large, dark-blue sedan, possibly a Lincoln Continental. They drove east on 2100 South, then turned back westbound. The woman is described as being in her mid-20s, average height, stocky, wearing a brown ball cap and dark-blue hooded sweatshirt.

The Salt Lake Tribune also says the woman had a mustache painted on her face, so the robber still wanted to appear as a man, apparently.

The old switcheroo

I have read a couple of different payday loan store robbery stories that involve a woman who waited outside for a male robber. In one story, a couple apparently even brought their baby along for the robbery. But I’ve never come across a story in which the woman wielded the gun and went into the store while a man waited outside.

This also is the first time I’ve read about a payday loan store robbery in Utah. I’ve read about several in Washington, California, Indiana, Illinois and Kansas as well as a few southern states such as Texas and Tennessee. Usually when I read about payday loan store news from Utah it’s about legislation and zoning laws.

Doubtful social equality news

I usually like news that shows women are capable of the same things men are, but I’m somehow not very excited to read that women, too, can rob payday loan stores. I can understand why the woman painted her face and didn’t want people to know she was a woman while she was holding a gun to a lone employee’s head.

It always makes me sad when I read about people who are willing to commit or threaten violence just to get a little money. The fact that this time it was a woman with the gun honestly doesn’t make me feel worse; I still have the same level of disgust and shame about the way our money-centric, selfish culture pushes people into threatening others for monetary gain.