By the Daily Post staff
Two months after a man brutally stabbed the clerk of the Menlo Park 7-Eleven, another man grabbed a pack of cigarettes from the same store and threatened to stab the clerk.
On Friday just before 1 a.m., a man went to the front counter at the convenience store and asked to buy some cigarettes. The clerk put the cigarettes on the counter, and in turn, the man put some coins on the counter, according to police spokeswoman Nicole Acker.
The clerk told the man that the coins he put on the counter were not enough to pay for the cigarettes, Acker said.
The man grabbed the cigarettes from the counter and walked out of the store. The clerk chased the man a short distance onto Alma Street and that’s when the man threatened to stab the clerk, according to Acker.
At this point, the man brandished a folding knife and fled across the train tracks toward Ravenswood Avenue.
The clerk was not injured. The man is described as a white man with blonde hair, a black jacket and a black backpack.
On Aug. 9, a clerk stabbed in the neck and throat by a man identified by police as Matthew Bertolucci, 27, of Menlo Park. The clerk was found on the floor bleeding, and the robbery was called into police by a customer.
Bertolucci was arrested on suspicion of robbery and assault with a deadly weapon.
The clerk chased a shoplifter over a pack of cigarettes. It’s not worth losing a life.