Layton store clerk is arrested in odd heist

LAYTON — Police have arrested a convenience-store clerk who they say roughed himself up and staged a robbery.

Devin Leebo Drca, 29, told officers he had been ambushed as he left the Maverik convenience store, 849 E. Gordon Ave., and was robbed of the store's bank deposit, said Layton Police Lt. Quinn Moyes. Drca initially told officers he had left the store to make the deposit when he spotted a wallet on the ground near his car and bent over to pick it up.

"That's when he said he was kicked in the face," the lieutenant said. "He said that he lost consciousness, and when he came to, the bag he had in his hand to go make the deposit was missing."

A police dog was brought in to search for the robber but did not locate anyone. Moyes said Drca was treated at the scene by paramedics for "a goose egg" on his left cheek.

Drca was taken to the police station for additional questioning and provided officers with inconsistent statements, Moyes said.

"That's when we learned the injury was self-inflicted," Moyes said. "We also learned about the whereabouts of the money, and that bank bag has been recovered."

Moyes declined to identify the implement Drca allegedly used to injure himself but said officers had recovered it. "We did determine that he acted alone in this scheme," Moyes said.

Drca has been booked into the Davis County Jail for investigation of theft, a second-degree felony, and making a false statement to police, a class B misdemeanor.

— Geoff Liesik