Carl Anthony “Tony” Berrier, 31, whose address has been given as 273 Cedar Lake Trail, Mount Airy, also attempted to rob a bank in Cana, which led to his arrest on July 19, 2007, after authorities noticed a pattern in the series of crimes. All three occurred within one mile of each other.
Berrier pleaded guilty to two counts of armed robbery and attempted robbery of a bank during the Feb. 26 term of Carroll County Circuit Court in Hillsville. He was scheduled to be sentenced for those offenses Thursday in Circuit Court, but that hearing was delayed to May 20, according to a court spokesperson.
The Mount Airy man has been held in the New River Valley Regional Jail in Dublin since his arrest.
Berrier has admitted to robbing Speedy Cash on U.S. 52 in Cana of $1,600 on July 6, 2007, then hit Cash to Go six days later, making off with a similar sum. In both cases, a masked man committed the robberies using a knife in one incident and what appeared to be a saw blade in the other.
After noting that each robbery had occurred at the end of the week about 10 a.m., officers with the Carroll County Sheriff’s Office began staking out the Cana area at those times. The hunch paid off when a third robbery was attempted on Thursday, July 19, 2007 at BB&T Bank. A teller noticed a man in the parking lot putting on a mask, which led bank employees to lock the doors.
In the meantime, the Sheriff’s Office had received a call about the man’s suspicious behavior and bank workers saw him drive away in a gold Chevrolet S-10 Blazer fitting the description of the getaway vehicle in the two earlier robberies.
Chief Deputy Glenn Nester, who had been staked out in Cana, stopped the pickup, which had the license plate removed, and also found a knife, mask, gloves and a trash bag inside. Authorities had suspected the robber might be from North Carolina, due to the pickup always heading south after the robberies.
Berrier subsequently confessed to the crimes, saying he used the money from the first robbery to pay bills because he and his wife had no funds in their bank account.
“I was fixing to lose my house to the bank. My wife is disabled due to a car wreck that she was in and can’t work,” the Mount Airy man said in a written confession shortly after his arrest. “The bank told me I had to have $1,400 and some odd dollars by last Friday or they were going to take papers out. My wife started to cry, so I done this in a desperate situation.”
He admitted giving the money from the second robbery at Cash to Go to his wife to catch up on their house payments, medical bills and other bills. Berrier explained that his wife thought he was borrowing the money from his uncle. Berrier wrote that he didn’t want to commit the robberies, but he was in a desperate situation and was afraid of losing everything.
“I didn’t want to do this. I was afraid. I am glad it’s over and will do anything to make it right,” his confession continued, which included an apology for threatening employees of the payday-lending businesses with the weapons.
“I have never done anything like this and will never do it again. I am sorry about scaring the girls at all the places I took money. I would have never hurt them. I just needed the money. I was in a bind.”
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