District Man Sentenced to 7 ½ Years in Prison for Brazen Robbery of Convenience Store ATM

Defendant and Accomplices Used Pick-Up Truck To Smash Through Storefront and Haul Off the ATM

            WASHINGTON – Arnold Boon, 33, of Washington, D.C., was sentenced today by Judge Paul L. Friedman, U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, to over seven years in prison and three years of supervised release resulting from his guilty plea to federal charges stemming from a robbery in which he and at least two others drove a stolen pick-up truck through the front of a Northwest Washington convenience store and hauled off an ATM machine containing at least $130,000.  As part of the sentence, Boon was also ordered to pay over $150,000.00 in restitution to the owner of the money stolen and the owner of the building where the store is located.

            The announcement was made by U.S. Attorney Jessie K. Liu, Matthew J. DeSarno, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Washington Field Office’s Criminal Division, and Peter Newsham, Chief of the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD).

            On April 22, 2019, Boon pled guilty before Judge Friedman to one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm and one count of interference with interstate commerce by robbery.

            According to the government’s evidence, on January 19, 2018, at approximately 1:30 a.m., a stolen Ford pickup truck smashed through the front of a 7-Eleven convenience store in the 200 block of Cedar Street NW. The truck was being driven by an unidentified male wearing dark clothing and a mask. Surveillance video captured two other masked men, one later identified as Boon through DNA evidence, entering the convenience store and lifting the store’s ATM machine onto the bed of the truck. While Boon and the other suspects attempted to lift the ATM machine, video from the store captured a gold watch worn by Boon fall to the ground. 

            A store clerk and at least one customer were inside the store at the time of the robbery. After struggling for several minutes to lift the ATM onto the truck, the men successfully loaded it onto the truck’s bed and Boon climbed onto the bed of the truck while the other two suspects entered the cab of the vehicle and fled the area.  Boon and the other suspects fled with more than $130,000 in cash that was inside the ATM. 

            The stolen vehicle was found idling a short distance from the location of the 7-Eleven with no occupants or the ATM machine. The next morning, the stolen ATM machine was recovered by police in a wooded area in Washington, D.C., with all the currency removed. 

            Police also recovered the gold watch at the crime scene, and DNA obtained from the watch eventually was matched to Boon. At the time of his arrest on March 17, 2018, Boon was in possession of a loaded semi-automatic pistol, which was recovered from the dresser drawer in his bedroom. Boon has been in custody since his arrest. At the time of the crime, he was barred from possessing a gun because of prior convictions on assault and other charges.

            This matter was investigated by the FBI Washington Field Office's Violent Crime Safe Streets Task Force which is composed of FBI Agents and task force officers from MPD and the United States Capital Police. The task force works cooperatively and in partnership with the Capital Region law enforcement community in investigating violent crimes and criminal threats within the region.

            In announcing the sentence, U.S. Attorney Liu, Special Agent in Charge DeSarno, and Chief Newsham commended the work of the FBI agents and MPD officers who investigated the case. They also acknowledged the efforts of those who worked on the case from the U.S. Attorney’s Office including Assistant U.S. Attorneys Steven B. Wasserman and Ethan Carroll, and Paralegal Specialist Rommel Pachoca.