Mitchell Ferguson

BRADY TWP — A Led Zeppelin shirt helped state police identify a man who allegedly robbed a discount store Sunday afternoon.

Mitchell J. Ferguson, 31, of Clay Township was arrested and arraigned Monday morning on robbery and theft charges. Police said a little more than $200 was taken from the Dollar General on Route 8 in Brady Township the day before.

Ferguson is being held in the Butler County Prison on $100,000 bail.

Police were called about 5:15 p.m. Sunday to the store following the robbery. A clerk told police that a man wearing a Led Zeppelin shirt and blue jeans walked up to the counter and asked for money. “I am going to need you to open up your register and give me all of the money in it,” he told the clerk, according to court documents.

While the clerk opened the cash register, the robber told her, “I am not playing. I don't want to hurt you.” The man reached over the counter and snatched $213 that was in the drawer, once the register was open, police said. He fled out the front door.

Investigators later that night in making a welfare check on a woman subsequently learned that she had driven Ferguson to the Dollar General — the store that was robbed.

She recounted that he had asked her for a ride to the store. She described Ferguson as wearing a Led Zeppelin shirt and blue jeans.

The woman said that she walked outside after he went inside. The defendant eventually returned to the car and they drove away. She said she dropped him off in Butler.

Charging documents did not indicate if she knew the suspect's plans. A telephone call to the investigating trooper was not immediately returned Monday.