By Vernon Robison

Moapa Valley Progress

Moapa Valley resident Susan Chapman was presented with a special certificate of appreciation from Metropolitan Police Department at the Moapa Valley Town Advisory Board meeting held Wednesday, December 14.

The certificate, presented by local Sergeant Bret Empey, praised Chapman for her involvement in an October 14 incident where a suspect held up the pharmacy counter at Lin’s Marketplace. Chapman, who was at the driveup pharmacy window at the time of the incident, watched the suspect after he left the store, and followed as he got in a vehicle and drove to the McDonald’s parking lot next door. Chapman then let the police know the location of the suspect when officers arrived on the scene. She then blocked the suspect’s exit from the McDonald’s parking lot with her car as police were entering the parking lot from another entrance to apprehend the suspect.

“What she did was the utmost of a good citizen,” Empey said. “She saw something that didn’t look right, put one and one together and came up with two, and decided to get involved.”

Empey stated that if Chapman had not gotten involved in the incident, police probably would not have caught the suspects who were identified as former St. George Police officers and were likely responsible for at least five similar robberies in Clark County and four in southern Utah.

“Their game plan had worked with them nine previous times,” Empey said. “Chances are it would have worked again. (Chapman) did everything right that any surveillance police officer would have done. And we’d just like to say to her: Thank you, thank you very much for getting involved!”