Bend K Market cashier recounts holdup

A Bend K Market cashier spoke out Monday about the confrontation Sunday night that she said triggered anger, not fear.

“I was blown away this was legit happening,” Lauralyn Searcy said. “This is happening –, I’m getting robbed right now, and I can’t do anything.”

Bend police said 32-year-old Brian Gifford of Klamath Falls used a knife to threaten the clerk, who was working alone at the store at 1400 Northwest Albany Avenue.

“It made me mad, because I knew it wasn’t one of mine — it wasn’t one of my customers, because they wouldn’t do that to me,” Searcy said.

Searcy said around 9 p.m., a man with a red bandana forced her to empty her til into a bag, then ordered her to lie on the ground.

Then — a customer came into the store.

“I was more scared for the kid,” Searcy said. That’s when I started to get a little fear, when I figured out there was another customer.”

Neither Searcy or the customer were injured.

Bend police said Gifford escaped with some cash before he was later caught in Redmond.

Gifford appeared in Deschutes County Court Monday afternoon on several charges including robbery and unlawful use of a weapon. Searcy was in the audience for his arraignment.

“I want to see what he has to say,” she said earlier. “And if he doesn’t have anything to say, he doesn’t have anything to say,”

The judge set Gifford’s bail Monday at $100,000. He’s due for another court appearance next Monday.

While Gifford was mostly silent during his brief hearing, his victim wants him to know she wasn’t robbed of anything but that cash.

“I’ll be back into work — I’m not quitting,” Searcy said. “I love my job.”

Gifford, 32, is accused of using a knife to hold up the market, said Bend police Lt. Clint Burleigh.

During their investigation, police learned Gifford left in a white Jeep Cherokee, and shared that with other area police.

Shortly before 2 a.m. Monday, Redmond police responded to an unrelated incident of a prowler report near Southwest 33rd Street and Newberry Avenue, Burleigh said. During that investigation, Gifford was found to be in possession of the white Jeep Cherokee, which was found to be stolen and registered to the state.

Redmond police were able to also recover property stolen in the Bend robbery and the weapon used, the lieutenant said.

Gifford was booked into the Deschutes County Jail on charges of first-degree robbery, two counts each of unlawful use of a weapon and menacing, unauthorized use of a motor vehicle, possession of a stolen vehicle, possession of burglar’s tools and second-degree criminal mischief. He was being held without bail on an out-of-county warrant.

Initial reports in the 911 dispatch call indicated the suspect was a white male in his 30s and about 5-foot-7 with a thin build. He reportedly wore a white hoodie or jacket and a red bandana covering his face.

In 2002, according a report in to the Klamath Falls Herald and News, the then-19-year-old Gifford was sentenced to nearly six years in prison for robbing a Circle K market in Klamath Falls. Prosecutors said Gifford confessed and cooperated with police, pleading guilty to one count of second-degree robbery. He apologized in court and his lawyer said he was talked into it by an alleged accomplice.