Yellowknife (Oct 18/06) - A lone knife-wielding bandit may be responsible for two armed robberies in Yellowknife committed days apart at locations across the street from one another.

Early Thursday morning a man brandishing a six-inch blade made off with more than $200 from the Shell Service Station on Range Lake Road.

Bang Pham of Linh's Convenience store on Range Lake Road, is fed up after a spate of break-ins and Saturday's armed robbery of her family's shop. In the past two months, thieves have broken into the convenience store four times.

"I even opened the door for him," said Asif Jutt, manager of the Shell. "It seemed like he was trying to hide from the cameras but not doing a good job. He walked around the store, opened up the fridges and even used the bank machine."

The suspect, described by Jutt as being 22 or 23, skinny, about 5'9" and caucasian, left the store but returned shortly after with the hood of his black parka up and wearing gloves.

"He asked for a pack of cigarettes and showed us the knife," recalled Jutt. "I don't know why he would rob Shell, it's so busy and we have eight cameras."

Bang Pham, owner of Linh's Convenience describes a similar heist that occurred Saturday around dinner hour.

"He had a mask on his face and he held a long knife at my son's stomach," said Pham, who had left the store in her 17-year-old son's care while she took her daughter to a birthday party. "My son first thought 'he's joking.' You know, this kind of thing doesn't happen here."

Pham's son turned over an undisclosed amount of cash to the robber, who fled south on Range Lake Road, possibly dropping or discarding the weapon a short distance away.

Yellowknife RCMP confirmed a knife was found nearby the convenience store but could not confirm it was linked to either crime.

"We can't say if it was the same weapon used (in both robberies), or used in the second crime at all," said Const. Roxanne Dreilich of the Yellowknife RCMP, who added that police were treating both crimes separately, but were considering the possibility of the same perpetrator. "Certainly there were enough similarities and it appears there may be a connection," she acknowledged.

Dreilich said police obtained video footage from Shell, but the footage wasn't sufficient to assist police in making a positive identification in their investigation.

"Nobody has been brought in for questioning and there are no suspects," said Dreilich.