A Villager’s son has been charged with using his mother’s car in a robbery at a Circle K while she was in North Dakota.
Tanner Reed Archer, 42, who lives with his mother in the Village of Piedmont, was arrested Thursday on a warrant charging him with robbery.
Archer drove his mother’s silver Chevy Malibu late on the night of July 23 to The Club rehabilitation facility at Mulberry Grove Plaza and walked over to the nearby Circle K, according to an arrest report from the Marion County Sheriff’s Office. He was wearing a face mask when he approached the clerk and demanded money from the register. He did not display a weapon. He left with about $300 in cash and walked back to his mother’s car. The clerk immediately called 911 and provided a description of the robber. A man and his girlfriend had been pumping gas and witnessed the robbery.
A detective went to work on the case and immediately began pulling footage from surveillance cameras at the gates in The Villages. He soon found that Archer’s mother was the owner of the vehicle. Archer claimed that on the night of the robbery, he “had gone to play pickleball and then went to hang out at The Village square,” the report said. He said he returned home at about 11:30 p.m.and “drank until he fell asleep” at about 3 a.m. He claimed he never left his home. However, the detective had gate camera surveillance images that proved the car had been in and out of the Village of Piedmont gate. Archer claimed the car must have been stolen, but the detective asked why someone would steal a car and return it 30 minutes later. Archer did not have an answer.
The report indicated that Archer’s mother was in North Dakota at the time of the robbery.
A surveillance image was sent to Archer’s mother. She indicated it could be her son. She said she believed he “would do something desperate, due to being low on cash.”
Archer was employed from Aug. 25, 2022 to March 13, 2023, at the Circle K on the Historic Side of The Villages.
A warrant was issued for Archer’s arrest. He was booked Thursday at the Marion County Jail on $25,000 bond.
