News 12 First at Five, August 28, 2008

AUGUSTA, Ga -- Richmond County investigators are hoping money will talk. They're offering a cash reward to help find three men who beat and tormented two women overnight during an attempted robbery.

The three men got away without any money, but left two women with life long scars, one who's still in the hospital. One woman was beaten in the face and head; the other was tormented.

The attempted robbery happened before 11:00 pm Wednesday night at the Savin Haven convenience store on the 4400 block of Mike Padgett Highway.

The same store was robbed last week.

The robbers tried to tie up the women and beat one of them before making off without any loot.
The crime was caught on tape. "Get on the floor, now! Get on the floor!" is what the men scream.

Three men, all covered in masks and gloves, and all armed with guns. In the video you see two men corner one clerk while the third drags the other woman away by her hair. It was in the back of the store, as you can see in the video, 43-year-old Veronica Dee is beaten with what investigators say was an unknown weapon.

Her cries for help, unfazing the other two men who attempt to break into the safe while tieing up this victim deputies say possibly with shoe laces.

"What makes three grown men think that carrying guns and beating up women makes them tough, but we're going to find a special place for them once we get them." says Lt. Scott Peebles with the Sheriff's Office.
All three leave after just two minutes without ever touching the cash register.

" (Sigh.) It heartless. Is really is heartless for anybody to have to go through that." says one Savin Haven employee who was robbed at the store last Tuesday. Savin haven employees say in the three years they've been opened, they've been robbed two times, both in the last two weeks. Eventually, all three of those robbers were caught.

But that brings little comfort after Wednesday night. "We don't have to live in fear. It seems like that's what we have to do, live in fear. Seems like they got the upper hand and that's just not right."
Something deputies are hoping to make right but it starts with someone recognizing these men and making a phone call.

One woman who was not hurt in last night's attack, tells News 12 she has since quit her job here.
As for the other victim, Dee, she is at MCG. Investigators say recovering from a fractured skull, a broken nose, and other injuries to her head and face.