Robber Tips Victim in $200 Holdup

DULUTH, Minn. — A security systems owner says he was robbed at knifepoint by a woman who took about $200, but gave him $20 back and thanked him for being “most generous.”

“I got a tip for being robbed,” Charles Grubb said last week.

“She confronted me with a meat-carving knife,” said Grubb, 50. “It looked like a machete. She was extremely nervous. She told me, ‘I’ve used this before, and I wouldn’t hesitate to use it again.’ ”

After taking the money and giving some of it back, the woman ran down an alley, Grubb said.

A few hours later, police arrested a 24-year-old woman staying at the downtown YWCA and took her to St. Luke’s Hospital for psychiatric observation. Charges were pending.