Berlin couple gets 5 years for Eastern Shore hat store robbery

Posted: 9:46 am Fri, February 8, 2013
By Associated Press

SNOW HILL — A couple convicted of staging a robbery inside a West Ocean City hat store has been sentenced to five years in prison.

The Daily Times of Salisbury reports that Kevin and Roslyn Purnell, of Berlin, were each sentenced Thursday after being convicted of charges including theft and conspiracy.

Prosecutors said the couple staged a robbery at a Lids hat store in August. Kevin Purnell told police that a masked intruder had tied him up, put a gun to his back and stolen hundreds of hats. But police determined that the tale was a hoax, and that Roslyn Purnell was the one who had actually tied up her husband.

The couple was caught in Baltimore two weeks later in a van that contained hundreds of hats.