Police along the Northern California coast say a 9-year-old girl who watched as her father robbed an eastern Washington convenience store is safe in their town waiting for her mother to pick her up.
Fortuna police Lt. Bill Dobberstein says the girl's father, Robert Daniel Webb, escaped a police chase and remains at large.
Dobberstein says Webb stopped at the home of an acquaintance in Fortuna on Wednesday night and the acquaintance called police because Webb appeared to be driving drunk.
When police arrived, Webb fled without the girl. The 42-year-old is accused of robbing an Ellensburg, Wash., AM-PM mini-mart of $200 Tuesday while his daughter watched.
The AM/PM clerk, Eric Owens, told KING-TV that the girl looked confused and frightened.
"His eyes were tearing up. This guy's hurting inside," Owens told the Seattle-based TV station. "He started telling me he worked in a place like this for years. He was fired off his job and his daughter needed medical care."
