Anyone with information about the suspect is asked to contact the Amador County Sheriff's Office at 223-6500 or Amador County Secret Witness Program at 223-4900. Photo by: Courtesy to the Ledger Dispatch

When the economy goes down, armed robberies go up - particularly in banks, late-night businesses and gas stations. However, on Oct. 9, a would-be assailant made a mistake when he decided to target the Lighthouse Christian Bookstore in Martell.

The robber was soon in a battle of wills with a fearless employee who sent him running away from the scene.

The incident occurred around 4 p.m. in suite 2064 in the busy Amador Plaza Shopping Center off Highway 88. A lone, female employee was tending to her usual duties when a suspicious man walked through the door. At the time, the store was full of customers. Although the man appeared to be aware of the business' surveillance cameras, he quietly stalked around for eight minutes without speaking to anyone, then exited soon after most of the other customers left. Within 17 minutes he was back again, this time sweeping through the door to make a direct line for the cashier. There were no customers in the store. The suspect presented the employee with an empty bag and a note and stated he had a gun. The last sentence read that the employee was to start filling the bag with money.

After reading the message, the cashier looked up at the robber and simply said, "No." At that point, the suspect verbally commanded her to "just put the money in the bag." Again the cashier refused to cooperate. Frustrated, the robber fled the scene. The entire event happened in less than a minute. The employee never saw an actual gun brandished in the attempt.

Deputies and detectives from the Amador County Sheriff's Office arrived within minutes of the robbery and began an area check.

"He left in an unknown direction," Undersheriff Jim Wegner said in a statement. "We were successful in locating and recovering physical evidence at the scene, which will be processed by the sheriff's evidence technician and then forwarded to the California Department of Justice for comparison."

Wegner said video surveillance has shown the suspect to be a white male, between 55 and 60 years of age, weighing approximately 160 pounds with gray hair and a gray goatee. During the robbery attempt he was wearing a dark blue baseball cap, a dark blue windbreaker, brown, knee-length shorts, ankle socks and black tennis shoes. Anyone with information about this suspect is asked to contact the Amador County Sheriff's Office at 223-6500 or Amador County Secret Witness Program at 223-4900.

Jeaniene Wisdom, owner of the Lighthouse Christian Bookstore, said the employee who thwarted the robbery attempt was a 16-year veteran of the store. "She was just following her instincts," Wisdom observed. "Something inside her told her that was the way she needed to react. I don't think she was wrong because she felt safe in doing it."

Wisdom added that she hoped a lesson would be learned from the experience. "At first this really bothered me, because it was the first time we'd ever had a incident like that happen," she said. "I think the important point to make here is that, if this man had just come in and said to us, 'I'm in need' or 'I really want help,' then we would have tried to assist him any way we could. But instead he chose to come in, make threats and demand money. If this turns out to be someone who was genuinely desperate, I hope he reaches out in a different way."