Irving police believe one man might be connected to two different robberies at the same Walmart parking lot along Texas 183.
Basilio Coleman said he was walking to his truck after getting off work at Walmart around midnight Saturday when a man approached him. Coleman was alone and believed the man had a weapon.
The man ordered Coleman to drive them to an ATM and withdrawal money from his account.
“First thing in my mind is to go somewhere where there are people,” said Coleman.
That's exactly what he did when he pulled into a Chevron station less than a mile away from the Walmart. Coleman then quickly jumped out of his pickup truck.
“I looked at him and said, ‘You’re on that end and I’m on this end, there’s cameras here. You can’t really do much now, can you?” said Coleman.
The man then ran away.
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But police think the man who robbed Coleman is the same man who robbed another man in the same Walmart parking lot more than a week ago. The demands in both cases were almost identical, investigators said.
“He [the victim] was very scared and complied, drove across town to an ATM and made a withdrawal,” said Irving Police Department spokesman James McLellan.
Both robberies happened late at night around the same time. In both cases nobody was injured and the man didn’t get away with any money.
Irving police are looking into a third robbery that recently happened in the same area that might also be connected to the cases at Walmart.
“You see it on TV, you see it in movies, but you never think that you’re going to be that one,” said Coleman.
With the holiday shopping season getting underway, shoppers everywhere are being put on alert.
“Criminals are taking advantage of easy targets. You don’t want to be an easy target,” said Plano Police Officer Christopher Bianez.
The crime prevention officer is warning women in particular to be careful as they shop for the holidays.
“Whenever you’re walking to your car from a place back to your car, I call that a transition,” said Bianez. “And during those times, you need to have your head on a swivel, be paying attention to what is going on around you.”
The two robberies in Irving are driving home his point.
“That scares me to death to be honest,” said Lewisville’s Courtney Griffin. “I’m just looking around a lot. I’m just really careful about seeing if there’s anyone behind me and when I walk up to my car sometimes I’ll even peak under it a little bit from a distance.”
NBC 5's Kevin Cokely contributed to this report.
