A man pretending he needed a room early Wednesday morning tried to rob a motel clerk at gunpoint before being scared off by the clerk's husband.
Bobby Thind, owner of the Frontier Motel, 1718 N. Carson St., said that just before 6 a.m. Wednesday he and his wife Meenu heard the buzzer ring on the front door of the motel office.
Thind said that while the motel generally doesn't open before 8 a.m., Meenu was concerned it was a tenant who needed something, so she unlocked the door and let the man inside.
Surveillance video shows the suspect to be a white male, possibly in his early 20s, wearing a black coat and royal blue baseball cap, possibly with the Seattle Mariners or L.A. Dodgers logo on the front. The man had fuzzy shoulder-length blonde hair. He had a red bandanna around his neck and was carrying a backpack.
Meenu can be seen giving the man a registration form and he appears to be filling it out while she works on the computer.
Thind said when his wife asked for identification the man bent down and began digging through his backpack.
Moments later, the video shows, the man rushes up behind Meenu, shoving a black handgun into her side and pulling her head-first down onto the ground.
As Meenu fell, she struck her face on the edge of the desk and sustained a busted lip.
The man then pulls open a drawer in a search for money as Meenu kicks at him from the ground.
Thind said that as soon as he heard his wife scream, he jumped out of bed and yelled he was coming out with a gun.
"Then the guy just took off running," said Thind.
He said he saw the bandit sprint across Carson Street, nearly getting hit by a car, and disappear behind the Kragen Auto Parts store.
Last November, the armed robbery of a clerk at the Frontier by three men prompted Thind to install nearly a dozen cameras in the motel's convenience store and office.
He said Wednesday he now also plans to install cameras outside the building.
Anyone with information on the suspect is asked to call Detective Daniel Gonzales at 887-2020 ext. 41407.
Carson City Secret Witness will pay up to $2,500 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of individuals committing crimes. To make an anonymous tip and become eligible for a reward call 775-322-4900.