Deputies suspected a homeless man held up a gas station in Canyon Country at gunpoint Saturday morning; by Saturday night, a suspect was arrested, Sheriff’s Station officials said.
Matthew Girard, described as a transient by deputies, was arrested on his 27th birthday on suspicion of robbery.
On Saturday, about 3 a.m. a man, 25-30 years of age, entered a business on the 28500 block of Sand Canyon Road and allegedly pointed a black semi-automatic handgun at the store employee behind the counter, demanding money, Shirley Miller, spokeswoman for the SCV Sheriff’s Station, wrote in a post on the Sheriff’s Facebook page.
The clerk complied with his orders and gave him the contents of the cash register, she wrote.
The suspect exited the business, and was seen getting into a gold-colored, 4-door sedan, driving eastbound on Soledad Canyon Road, and out of view.
On that same morning, a detective assigned to the case, distributed the suspect and suspect’s vehicle images obtained from the store’s video surveillance to patrol deputies.
“She joked to deputies ‘not to come back to the station unless they had the suspect in custody.’ One deputy took her words to heart,” Miller wrote in her post.
About 11:30 p.m. Saturday night, a deputy who was nearing the end of his shift, spotted a male adult and vehicle that matched the wanted suspect at a business located in close proximity to the original robbery location.
In fact, the suspect was even still wearing the same clothes.
It was a match, Miller wrote.
Girard was transported and booked into Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station jail on felony robbery charges.
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