PORT NECHES, Texas — A Groves man is behind bars after Port Neches Police tracked him down for allegedly robbing a store at gun point.
On Friday, October 4, 2024, at around 9 p.m., Port Neches officers were called out to a reported aggravated robbery at the Fire Smoke Shop on Nall according to a post from PNPD on Facebook.
While on their way to the scene officers were warned that the man had just left the shop in a white SUV and he was armed with a gun.
When officers arrived at the shop they interviewed the clerk for information and reviewed the security camera footage.
The clerk told officers that a man had entered the store wearing all black, a black mask and brandished what appeared to be a handgun wrapped in a blue bandana.
The man demanded that the cashier put money from the register in a bag he was carrying, then rushed out of the store.
A description of the vehicle and suspect was reported to central dispatch and relayed to surrounding agencies.
This was the reportedly the latest in a string of robberies of smoke shops around the Nederland and Groves areas, which had a similar description of the suspects vehicle.
Groves police officers later setup at various points on Twin City Highway watching for the vehicle. A short time later, Sergeant Dotson conducted a traffic stop on a white Ford Explorer near Greenlawn Cemetery according to GPD.
According to Sergeant Dotson, the driver and the car both matched the description of the suspected armed robber.
Dotson also said he observed items in the vehicle in plain view that had been described as being used by the suspect during the robbery.
Dotson called in his findings and was then met at the scene by two other officers who then took the driver and the car down to the Port Neches Police Department.
The driver was later identified as 45-year-old Johnny Manuel Polanco of Groves.
He was arrested and taken to the Jefferson County Jail where he was booked in on a charge of Aggravated Robbery.
