A man approaching a 7-Eleven on Pulaski Highway in Bear was grabbed, struck, and robbed in broad daylight Friday evening, marking at least the third time in five years that this particular convenience store has been targeted. The victim suffered minor injuries but refused medical treatment after the attack, which police say happened around 5:30 p.m. near the store's entrance at 1700 Pulaski Highway.
According to NBC10 Philadelphia, the victim was walking toward the store when a woman grabbed his arm and demanded his personal property. A second suspect then got out of a vehicle and struck the victim before the pair took his belongings and fled the scene in a white sedan. Delaware State Police are now asking the public for help identifying both suspects.
New Details on the Suspects
Fresh details released by Delaware State Police identify the woman who grabbed the victim's arm as a Black female, while the man who exited the vehicle and struck him is described as a Black male. The descriptions were released as detectives continue reviewing evidence from the scene. Anyone with information is asked to contact Detective J. Dempsey at (302) 365-8472 or to reach Delaware Crime Stoppers at 1-800-TIP-3333 or delawarecrimestoppers.com.
State police have also made their Victim Services Unit available around the clock, offering a toll-free hotline and a dedicated support email to the victim or any witnesses who may have seen the attack. The agency routinely attaches these resources to major criminal investigation announcements, and detectives have not said whether surveillance footage from the 7-Eleven or nearby businesses has been recovered to help trace the white sedan used in the getaway.
A Store With a Troubled History
This is not the first time the 1700 Pulaski Highway 7-Eleven has found itself at the center of a robbery investigation. On December 23, 2024, a suspect implied he had a gun and demanded cash from an employee at the same store before fleeing on foot, according to the same state police account from that incident. That case led to a cross-state manhunt, and the state police report notes a 28-year-old suspect was ultimately located and arrested in Deerfield Beach, Florida, in February 2025, then extradited to Delaware on felony robbery charges — an arrest carried out jointly by the Broward Sheriff's Office V.I.P.E.R. team and the First State Fugitive Task Force, per First State Update.
The store's troubles stretch back further still. In August 2021, the same location was targeted in an attempted knife-point robbery that was part of a multi-store spree along the commercial corridor, one that ended with a police pursuit on I-95, the Newark Post reported at the time. Just down the block, Delaware State Police also investigated a daytime strong-arm robbery in December 2024 at a Wawa located at 1605 Pulaski Highway, where a suspect confronted a customer who was using an ATM.
Why Troopers, Not Local Police, Are Investigating
Because Bear is an unincorporated census-designated place without its own municipal police department, Delaware State Police Troop 2, based in Glasgow, holds primary jurisdiction over the area, according to a security report published by Wilmington University. Troop 2 covers unincorporated New Castle County communities along the busy US Route 40 corridor, where Friday's robbery occurred.
That stretch of Pulaski Highway is one of New Castle County's busiest commercial strips, lined with convenience stores, gas stations, and strip malls that sit along major transit routes, according to a local business profile from Privin Network. Route 40 connects directly to Interstate 95 and Delaware Route 1, giving suspects fast, multi-directional escape routes across county lines — a layout that has repeatedly made roadside retailers here targets for quick-hit robberies.
How the Charges Could Play Out
Under Delaware Code Title 11 § 831, a strong-arm robbery committed through physical force without a deadly weapon is charged as Robbery in the Second Degree, a Class E felony punishable by up to five years in prison, according to FindLaw's summary of the statute. Delaware law upgrades the charge to first-degree robbery if a suspect displays a deadly weapon or inflicts serious physical injury, though no weapon has been reported in Friday's incident.
The robbery also lands amid a broader pattern of steady violent crime in New Castle County. Statewide data published by the Delaware Criminal Justice Council shows the county's violent offense rate climbed slightly from 14.55 per 1,000 residents in 2024 to 15.02 per 1,000 residents in 2025, even as overall property crime numbers trended downward over the previous several years. No arrests have been announced in Friday's robbery, and police have not said whether the two incidents at the same store are connected.
