Sheriff’s office investigating string of armed robberies in Macon after Thanksgiving

A string of four apparently unrelated weekend armed robberies at Macon stores began shortly before 9 p.m. Friday at a Walgreens that overlooks Vineville Avenue at Forest Hill Road.

No one was hurt and no shots were fired in the stickups, whose locations spanned the county over a stretch of roughly 24 hours into Saturday night.

Each of the bandits got away. Investigators were said to be rounding up available surveillance footage.

In the first robbery, a gunman walked into the Walgreens, demanded cash and took off with an undisclosed amount of money.

About half an hour later, at 9:36 p.m. Friday, a man threatened a cashier with a baseball bat at the Family Dollar at 2035 Shurling Drive in east Macon and ran off with some cash.

Then at 10:15 p.m. at the Welcome Food Store, which faces U.S. 80 at Knoxville Road in Lizella on the county’s west side, a masked man with a gun made off with cash.

A fourth stickup happened just before 11 p.m. Saturday at King’s Food Mart at the intersection of Houston Avenue and Hightower Road, about a quarter-mile south of Eisenhower Parkway. The gunman in that robbery stole money and ran away.

“This time of year, we usually see an uptick” in armed robberies, Bibb County sheriff’s Lt. Sean DeFoe said Monday.

DeFoe said sheriff’s investigators were pursuing leads.