A Westbury man was allegedly high and drunk when police arrested him Wednesday night for robbing a Bethpage Dairy Barn, Nassau County police said.
Detectives said 41-year-old Robert Dukich was armed with a crow bar when he entered the store on 1 Collector Avenue just before 11 p.m. and demanded money from the female cashier.
The woman stepped away, police said, and Dukich allegedly pried the cash register open with the crow bar and fled the scene in a green Ford Explorer with cash from the store.
Police were alerted to the crime over the radio and then spotted the Explorer traveling south on Route 135 and failing to stay in its lane, police said.
The car was eventually stopped on the Southern State Parkway at Exit 30S. Police said the smell of alcohol was emanating from his breath and he was allegedly in possession of a crack pipe.
Dukich is being charged with first-degree robbery, DWAI combined with drugs and alcohol, DWAI by drugs, and criminal possession of a weapon.
He will be arraigned Thursday at First District Court in Hempstead.