By Patti Weaver
STILLWATER — A former employee of Casey’s convenience store on Main Street in Cushing has been jailed on $7,500 bond pending his arraignment Thursday on a charge of burglarizing the business while it was closed — from which three cigarette cartons, 19 Fireball alcohol bottles and one pack of bananas were reportedly taken.
The suspect, Cody Allen Pipkin, 33, of Cushing, was arrested at his residence on Maple Street at 7:16 pm on Nov. 7, about five hours after the break-in was reported to Cushing Police Officer Jonathan Walker while he was at Casey’s at about 2 pm, court records show.
If convicted of second-degree burglary, Pipkin could be given as much as a seven-year prison term, according to the felony charge filed last week.
The manager said, “an ex-employee came to the store (identified as Cody Pipkin), and used a key that he never turned in, to get inside the store after hours.
She stated that Pipkin used an old alarm code in an attempt to disable the store’s alarm system. She stated that Cushing police officers did not arrive at the store until five minutes after Pipkin left the property,” Walker alleged in an affidavit.
“I viewed the footage from the store’s surveillance system, which showed Pipkin in black tennis shoes, black pants, a black zip-up jacket with a white logo on the left front with the hood up, and a black face mask with white design on the front, which covered his face.
“The footage showed Pipkin mess with the area of the front door lock of the eastern most door on the south side of the building, while outside the door. The footage showed Pipkin opened the door and walked inside to the alarm panel just west of the front doors and mess with it for a moment before turning around and walking behind the counter.
“The footage then showed Pipkin take a Casey’s plastic sack and began putting different items inside, which appeared to be Fireball alcohol and cartons of cigarettes. The footage showed Pipkin take another Casey’s plastic sack and begin taking more items and placing it into that sack.
“The footage then showed Pipkin walk back around to the front of the counter with his mask down. The footage showed Pipkin walk out of the store through the same door he came in through and walk southwest through the parking lot.
“The footage of the incident was captured from five different cameras on Nov. 7,” between about 12:42 am and 12:44 am, the affidavit alleged.
According to Casey’s manager, $366.23 worth of items were stolen from the store, the affidavit alleged.
When Pipkins was contacted by Cushing police at a house where he was staying, “Pipkin stated he worked at Casey’s two to three months prior. Pipkin advised he did not have the key and that he just quit and that he got rid of it by throwing it in the trash,” the affidavit said.
However, a silver key was found inside Pipkin’s black pants under a television in a woman’s room in the house where he was staying, the affidavit alleged.
The Cushing officer alleged in his affidavit that when a store employee allowed him to test the key on the front door of Casey’s. “I was able to lock and unlock the door using the key.”
When the homeowner let police search the property where Pipkin was staying, bottles of Fireball and cartons of cigarettes were found in a woman’s room, the affidavit alleged.
