Officer at gas station chases, nabs robber

SARATOGA SPRINGS — A police officer nearly walked into an armed robbery when he stopped to fill up his cruiser early Sunday morning.

About 4:15 a.m., the officer was getting fuel at Top Stop when he saw a man leaving the station and decided to pull the man over for riding an ATV on a public road, Saratoga Springs police said.

When the officer turned his lights on, the 20-year-old man fled. About that time, dispatchers told the officer that the man had just robbed the Top Stop at gunpoint.

The officer chased the man through a neighborhood, until the ATV became high centered. The man was arrested, and officers found a small handgun and cash on him.