WATERLOO - Clerks at a convenience store that was robbed twice in recent months thought they were about to see a crime unfold again Thursday night.

Confronted by a rambling man who had his hand in his pocket, the workers at Five Star Snacks and More on Sullivan Avenue thought they were being held up and alerted police.

But the man was merely drunk, and the robbery suspicions were only a mistake, said Capt. John Beckman with the Waterloo Police Department.

Tory Bradford, 32, of Waterloo, was arrested for public intoxication, disorderly conduct and interference.

Police said Bradford had been in and out of the store Thursday night, and he finally returned about 9 p.m.

Bradford was ranting and apparently mentioned some of the recent robberies that have happened over the past week, Beckman said.

The clerks assumed they were being robbed. They put money in a bag and threw it at Bradford, who left it alone and walked out of the store, Beckman said.

Patrol officers found him standing in the street near the store with watery eyes and slurred speech, police said. He refused to get on the ground when police ordered him to do so.

Five Star Snacks was held up in August, and police arrested Daniel Shawn Drenner, 40, of Waterloo, for second-degree robbery in the case.

Then on Sept. 24, a trio of men carrying a shotgun walked up to the store, but an employee saw them and locked the door before they could get inside.

Two of the men - Michael Newson, 26, and Jacob Mervin Gary, 19 - were later caught in a Cedar Falls heist.