Man whose mother called the cops on him after Macon Family Dollar robbery pleads guilty
Sometime in the day or so after he strode into a south Macon dollar store toting a .380-caliber pistol, held up the clerks and got away with money from a cash drawer, Jarvis Flowers’ mother recognized him from surveillance photographs the cops shared with local news outlets.
The stickup happened the night of Aug. 12, 2020, at the Family Dollar at 3567 Houston Ave.
Forty-eight hours later, Flowers — thanks in large part to his mom’s tip — was arrested and jailed.
On Tuesday in Bibb County Superior Court, the 34-year-old Flowers pleaded guilty to robbery by force and possession of a firearm by a felon. He was sentenced to serve 10 years in prison and another decade on probation.
During the robbery, Flowers had worn sunglasses and a black baseball cap, and when he stepped into the store two clerks and a manager were cleaning up to close. Investigators said Flowers, whose jail booking sheet lists his home address near Centerville, then walked up to a cash register and told a clerk to give him “the paper,” referring to money from the till.
Flowers reportedly told the workers that he didn’t want to hurt anyone. While they scrambled to fork over the cash, Flowers said, “Come on, y’all. It’s not y’all’s money anyway.”
It was unclear how much money he made off with, but when he was caught two days later he was carrying what was believed to be the same pistol used in the robbery.
By The Telegraph’s count, there have been 23 armed robberies at Macon dollar stores since the beginning of 2020: 11 at Dollar Generals; 11 at Family Dollars and one at a Dollar Tree. The one Flowers held up has been robbed at least once since he has been locked up.
In court on Tuesday, Flowers did not say much.
The judge told him that when he is released from prison sometime around 2030, “You can’t go back to this Family Dollar store, you understand?”
“Yes, sir,” Flowers said.
“It’d probably be best,” the judge went on, “that when you get out you don’t go to any store that has the word ‘dollar’ in the name of it.”