Police have arrested a 25-year-old Comcast Corp. employee after a check-cashing store in Portland was robbed and a female employee was clubbed in the head with a crowbar. At first police thought the man in a Comcast uniform who fled the robbery scene in a company van was posing as an employee. However, the man they arrested Wednesday afternoon was employed by Comcast.
"It's one of those robberies that kind of leaves us just wondering, 'Why in the world would you do this?'" robbery Detective Brent Christensen told The Oregonian newspaper.
Michael Clarence Hagen was arrested for investigation of attempted aggravated murder, robbery and assault. Detective Chris Traynor says police confiscated a metal weapon and more than $3,000 in stolen cash from the cable van.
Investigators suspect the phone lines at Ace Checks Cashed were cut early Wednesday to trick the clerk into allowing the intruder behind the store's locked partition.
Police say the 37-year-old victim's injuries were not life-threatening.
Employees at an adjacent business, The Chair Outlet, found the victim bound and gagged with electrical tape and covered in blood. They had arrived at work to find their phones dead and manager Chris Herman went next door to see if Ace Checks Cashed had service.
There, he saw a man in a Comcast uniform standing behind the locked partition with the clerk. Herman returned to his store and called 911.
He and a co-worker then returned to the cash-checking story in time to see the man in a Comcast uniform drive away and find the clerk wounded.
"We continue to work closely and cooperate with local authorities," said Theressa Davis, vice president of communications for Comcast.
The Oregonian said a public records check showed Hagen, a Comcast technician for five years with no prior criminal record, does face multiple civil liens and judgments dating back to 2006. Comcast placed him on leave Wednesday.
Comcast Corp. employee
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