Police stop attempted robbery

What is believed by Hodgenville City Police to have been an attempted armed robbery was thwarted last week at Cash Express.

According to Chief of Police Steve Johnson, the station got a call from the business on South Lincoln Boule­vard saying two men driving a white Crown Victoria had come into the store asking what time closing was. 

The next day, the same men returned to the store and were “out in the parking lot, sitting, watching the business.” When the two men got out of the car and walked around the building, police said the store staff got “nervous.” 

After City Police received the call, Sgt. Marcus Jackson stopped the Crown Victoria nearby Cash Express. Eventually, the driver, Mark Montez Barnett of Hopkinsville, was arrested for driving with no operator’s license.

The car was impounded, because the driver was taken into custody for driving without a license. 

Hodgenville police began to inventory items inside the car, which is protocol for all impounded vehicles so that the owner’s personal belongings are not lost in the process. 

During the inventory, police reportedly found a 40-caliber handgun and a black ski mask inside a tote in the vehicle’s trunk.

When police ran Barnett’s criminal history, they learned that he  previously had been charged with armed robbery in Indiana. 

According to Johnson, a felon is not allowed to possess a handgun by state law. With information of Barnett’s criminal background, police filed additional charges of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon as well as defacing a firearm. 

Barnett’s preliminary hearing was last week.