A 60-year-old Wilmington man is behind bars without bond after police say he robbed or tried to rob four businesses across the city in a single overnight run, threatening cashiers and, in one case, pointing a firearm through a drive-through window. Bruce Orr was arrested inside a Cedarwood Drive apartment on Monday, less than 12 hours after the last of the four incidents.
According to WECT, the spree began Sunday evening at a gas station on Oleander Drive, according to the Wilmington Police Department. Around 11:45 p.m. Sunday, a man demanded money from a cashier at a gas station in the 300 block of South College Road, implied he had a firearm and threatened violence before running off.
Roughly half an hour later, at 12:10 a.m. Monday, a man pointed a firearm at a cashier through the drive-through window of a restaurant in the 6800 block of Market Street and demanded the register's contents, the station's report states. Then, around 3:45 a.m., a man claiming to be armed forced a gas station manager in the 800 block of Pine Grove Drive to open both the register and the safe before fleeing.
Detectives Tie One Vehicle to the String of Hits
Wilmington Police Department Criminal Investigation Division detectives determined that the same suspect and the same vehicle were involved in the incidents, and patrol officers ran additional security checks at 24-hour businesses as the investigation unfolded, per the same account. As reported by StarNews, detectives tracked that vehicle to an apartment complex on Cedarwood Drive, where they found it sitting unoccupied in the parking lot.
With the vehicle located, detectives obtained warrants charging Orr in connection with all four incidents and arrested him inside an apartment at approximately 3 p.m. Monday — the article notes investigators seized cash and additional evidence during the arrest, according to WWAY News.
Orr now faces three counts of robbery with a dangerous weapon, one count of attempted robbery with a dangerous weapon and one count of second-degree kidnapping, per the WECT report. He's being held without bond at the New Hanover County Sheriff's Office Detention Center. Under North Carolina law, robbery with a firearm or other dangerous weapon is codified as a felony offense under G.S. 14-87, titled “Robbery with firearms or other dangerous weapons.”
A Spike in Robberies Amid an Otherwise Quieter Year
The case lands amid a notable shift in Wilmington's crime data. WWAY reported that robbery rose more than 50% in 2025 compared with 2024, even as several other violent-crime categories fell sharply — weapon violations dropped more than 26% and aggravated assaults, including shootings, fell more than 71% over the same period. Wilmington Police Chief Ryan Zuidema has said the overall decrease in crime reflects a trend the department has tracked over the past five years.
It isn't the first robbery to hit a 24-hour Wilmington business in recent memory. In April 2025, police investigated a robbery at the Kangaroo Express on Oleander Drive, in which a suspect allegedly tried to use counterfeit money, assaulted a cashier and took money from the register, according to WECT's earlier coverage.
Wilmington police are asking anyone with information about the four incidents to call the department at 910-343-3600 or submit a tip through the anonymous Tip411 app.
