A man armed with a knife robbed a Royal Farms convenience store in Severn early Monday morning, demanding money and tobacco products before fleeing on foot, according to police. Anne Arundel County officers responded to the 7800 block of Telegraph Road at around 2:15 a.m. after the store reported the holdup. The suspect remains at large as detectives comb through the county's latest overnight commercial robbery.
According to WBFF, the suspect walked into the store, pulled a knife, and demanded cash and tobacco products from an employee. He grabbed the items and ran from the store on foot, police said. He is described as a white man wearing a black long-sleeved shirt, black pants, and grey shoes, with a grey towel or t-shirt covering his face.
The Anne Arundel County Police Department's Regional Crimes Unit is now investigating the case. The unit is a specialized countywide division built to identify and dismantle patterns of repeat criminal activity across the county, according to Anne Arundel County Government policy documents, which also note the unit oversees the department's Financial Crimes Squad. Its assignment to a single convenience store robbery suggests investigators may be looking at whether the case connects to other recent holdups in the area.
A Chaotic Overnight Stretch for Severn
The robbery capped an unusually busy night for police in the Severn area. Less than five hours earlier, officers had responded to a shots-fired report and barricade standoff on Severn Hills Lane that ultimately led to 17 charges against a 48-year-old resident, per the same county account. Officers set up a perimeter and deployed the department's Quick Response Team before taking that suspect into custody, a case Hoodline detailed in its report on the Severn barricade standoff.
The Royal Farms robbery also lands amid a string of late-night commercial robberies that the Regional Crimes Unit has investigated across northern Anne Arundel County this summer. A July 17 armed robbery hit a Linthicum Dash In, and a July 22 armed robbery targeted a Glen Burnie 7-Eleven, both involving handguns and suspects who fled on foot, per county records reviewed for this story. Just days before the Royal Farms robbery, three teens pulled a gun on a pizza delivery driver in Severn, a case Hoodline covered when it reported on the Severn pizza driver robbery.
Royal Farms Stores Have Been Targeted Before
This is not the first time a Severn Royal Farms has been robbed. Police previously investigated an armed robbery at a different Severn Royal Farms location on Annapolis Road in April 2024, a case that was also referred to the Regional Crimes Unit, according to a report from The BayNet. In November 2024, a suspect robbed a Royal Farms on Ritchie Highway in nearby Glen Burnie during early morning hours, specifically demanding tobacco products, according to Hoodline's earlier coverage of the Glen Burnie Royal Farms robbery, in which the suspect implied having a weapon and fled with cigarettes.
Royal Farms, founded in Baltimore in 1959 by Cloverland Farms Dairy as a chain originally called White Jug, has since grown into a regional presence with more than 260 convenience stores across seven Mid-Atlantic states and North Carolina, according to background compiled on Wikipedia. The Telegraph Road location sits along a commercial corridor connecting Fort Meade, BWI Airport, and Route 100, an area also home to retail centers, gas stations, and a large regional food distribution facility, according to commercial property listings on LoopNet.
Legal Exposure If Suspect Is Caught
Under Maryland law, robbery with a dangerous weapon such as a knife is classified as a felony carrying a maximum penalty of up to 20 years in state prison, according to the KGO Law Firm. Standard robbery without a weapon is also a felony under Maryland Code, Criminal Law § 3-402, carrying a maximum sentence of up to 15 years, per Houlon Berman. Maryland law also requires people convicted of violent felonies like armed robbery to serve at least half of their sentence before becoming eligible for parole.
The stakes tied to commercial robberies in the region have proven severe in other cases. A May 2024 robbery outside a Royal Farms on Russell Street in Baltimore that resulted in a victim's death led to grand jury murder indictments handed down last month, a case Hoodline previously reported in its coverage of the Royal Farms robbery turned fatal.
No arrests had been announced in the Severn case as of Monday. Anyone with information is asked to contact Regional Crimes Unit detectives at 410-222-4730, or to remain anonymous by calling the Anne Arundel County police tip line at 410-222-4700.
