Truck driver robbed at gunpoint

Published 10:48 pm Thursday, October 12, 2006

What looked to be a typical day for a delivery driver turned into an encounter with a gunman on Thursday in Dalton, according to police.

Darren Davenport, a driver for the L.P. Shanks Co. of Crossville, Tenn., was robbed by a black male carrying a chrome colored pistol while Davenport sat in his truck around 11:40 a.m. after he made a delivery at the ABC convenience store at 507 E. Morris St., according to a police report. The gunman took a bag of money containing $1,347 from Davenport, according to the report.

Davenport, 33, told police he had counted money from the delivery with the store clerk in a back room of the store, then put the money in his pocket. He went back to his truck to finish some paperwork and put the money in a money bag. Moments later, Davenport told police, he saw the passenger side door of the truck open and the man pointing a gun at him. The man took the money and ran away.

Davenport told police the man looked to be in his mid-50s and was wearing a blue-green hooded sweatshirt.

Hugh Nelson, a spokesman for the L.P. Shanks Co., confirmed a truck belonging to the company was robbed but declined to comment further out of concern that other trucks might become targets. The company delivers groceries to convenience stores in Tennessee, Kentucky and Georgia, according to its Web site (www.lpshanks.com).

The clerk at the store said she was in a back room and didn’t see the robbery.