{"id":431074,"date":"2026-08-12T21:26:37","date_gmt":"2026-08-12T21:26:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/431074\/"},"modified":"2026-08-12T21:26:37","modified_gmt":"2026-08-12T21:26:37","slug":"man-arrested-after-tip-jars-stolen-in-fresno-employee-injured-with-screwdriver","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/431074\/","title":{"rendered":"Man arrested after tip jars stolen in Fresno, employee injured with screwdriver"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>FRESNO, Calif. (FOX26) \u2014 A man accused of stealing tip jars from a Fresno restaurant on Tuesday and injuring an employee with a screwdriver during the confrontation has been arrested.<\/p>\n<p>Police responded to the restaurant near Fresno Street and North Friant just before 8 p.m. for the report of a theft.<\/p>\n<p>While en route, they learned the suspect may be armed with a knife and\/or screwdriver that was used to injure an employee, elevating the crime from theft to a robbery.<\/p>\n<p>The employee told officers the suspect grabbed two tip jars from the front counter and started walking out the front door. <\/p>\n<p>The employee grabbed the suspect\u2019s shirt and told him to drop the money.<\/p>\n<p>[RELATED] <a href=\"https:\/\/kmph.com\/news\/crime\/crime-scene-on-belmont-avenue-in-fresno-belmont-avenue-and-effie-street-fresno-police-department-officers-investigation-roads-blocked-crime-scene-tape\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Man chopped with hatchet multiple times on Belmont Avenue<\/a><\/p>\n<p>That&#8217;s when he said the suspect raised a screwdriver over his head and made a stabbing motion toward the employee.<\/p>\n<p>The screwdriver slipped through the suspect\u2019s hand and slightly scratched the employee\u2019s right shoulder before the suspect left the location.<\/p>\n<p>A responding officer spotted a person matching the suspect\u2019s description under the underpass of Friant and attempted to make contact. <\/p>\n<p>The officer said the suspect, identified as 38-year-old Lawrence Oliver Cuff, was combative and refused to comply. <\/p>\n<p>During that time, police said Cuff ran from officers, took a fighting stance, pushed officers, attempted to take gear from officers\u2019 load-bearing vest, and swung at officers.<\/p>\n<p>Officers tased Cuff multiple times, but the Taser had no effect, police said. <\/p>\n<p>Cuff then ran to a nearby shopping center at Nees Avenue and Blackstone Avenue, which was heavily populated due to a weekly farmers market, before officers successfully detained him.<\/p>\n<p>During the investigation, Cuff was positively identified as the suspect in the robbery, police said. <\/p>\n<p>He was arrested and booked into the Fresno County Jail on multiple charges, including robbery, assault with a deadly weapon, and resisting or delaying an officer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FRESNO, Calif. (FOX26) \u2014 A man accused of stealing tip jars from a Fresno restaurant on Tuesday and&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":431075,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[112,114,113],"class_list":["post-431074","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fresno","tag-fresno","tag-fresno-headlines","tag-fresno-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/431074","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=431074"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/431074\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/431075"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=431074"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=431074"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=431074"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}