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'Dollar General Bandit' of the Carolinas Arrested, Suspected of 20 Robberies

Officers say Ron Luclaire Houser, 41, is now in custody up in North Carolina.
Ron Luclaire Houser

Kershaw County, SC (WLTX) - Kershaw County deputies have arrested a suspect who they say robbed three separate Dollar General stores there and many others in the Carolinas.

Ron Luclaire Houser, 41, is now in custody up in North Carolina facing multiple charges.

Kershaw County Chief Deputy Jack Rushing says a Dollar General on Lugoff was robbed on December 4. During the crime, the suspect beat up a woman working at the store. A review of surveillance video seemed to show he was the same perrson who robbed a Dollar General in Camden last October, and another Dollar General in Lugoff on January 21.

Rushing says investigators discovered a person matching the same description also robbed Dollar General stores in other parts of South and North Carolina. Law enforcement agencies in both states notified Dollar General stores within their jurisdictions and made them aware of the suspect’s description and his method of operation when robbing the stores.

Eventually, a police officer in Locust, North Carolina then spotted the suspect's vehicle at a Dollar General store up there. She followed the car, got the tag number, and ran his information.

When they showed Houser's picture to one of the store clerks who'd been robbed, the person recognized Houser out of a lineup.

Kershaw County investigators then obtained arrest warrants for Houser and advised North Carolina that they had armed robbery charges on him. Officers tracked Houser down and took him into custody.

Houser is in jail up in North Carolina on a $401,000.00 bond with holds placed on him by several law enforcement agencies in North and South Carolina. Houser is the suspect in armed robberies in 20 different jurisdictions, Rushing says.

Rushing adds Houser had served 19 years in prison previous armed robbery convictions, and had been released in 2015.

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