Mobil Gas north of Santa Barbara
SANTA BARBARA COUNTY — The Mobil Gas Station located just north of the Santa Barbara city limits may be located in a high traffic area, with thousands of vehicles passing in all directions throughout the day, but that apparently did not dissuade 49-year-old Walter Rouse, a known local transient, from trying to make off with the facility’s cash.
According to Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Department Public Information Officer Kelly Hoover, it was just after 9:00 p.m. on the night of March 13th when Rouse entered the service station’s convenience store area and “walked behind the counter where the clerk was standing” bearing what witnesses reported as a knife.
When the store clerk allegedly observed the weapon in Rouse’s hand, he apparently concluded that “he was being robbed,” whereupon he physically shoved Rouse backward and promptly summoned law enforcement by calling 911.
Obviously wanting no part of any law enforcement contact, Rouse—described by Santa Barbara Police Department spokesman Lt. Ed Olsen’s witness report as “a white male adult about 40 years old” with a mustache, stocky build, and wearing a gray “pullover sweater and jeans”—promptly fled the premises on foot.
Responding Santa Barbara Police Department units initiated a search of the nearby area and discovered Rouse hiding at the rear of a commercial building. According to Hoover, when Rouse was contacted and taken into custody, “no weapon was recovered.”
Rouse was transported to Santa Barbara County Jail, where was booked on a charge of attempted armed robbery.
