When a customer walked into the Hatfield McCoy Mart near Danville early Monday morning, he heard employee Beth Wild screaming so loud he thought she'd seen a mouse, according to Wild's recounting of events.
The customer didn't realize how much danger she'd been in until a man came charging at him with a knife, then took off in a truck, Wild said.
"I have no idea what would have happened to me if he didn't come in," Wild said. "I told him he saved my life."
Wild said she was working around 4:30 a.m. Monday when a man came in, attacked her and robbed the register.
Police arrested Robert Scott Clark II, 23, of Omar, on Tuesday and charged him with armed robbery, according to Boone County Sheriff's Department Chief Deputy Chad Barker.
Wild said she was prepping pizza on Monday when a man with a mustache wearing a big jacket came in to use the bathroom.
"I didn't think anything of it because that's normal, but when I was putting the pizza in the fridge, he ran up behind me and put his arm around my throat," she said.
Wild, who is 5-foot-3, said she begged the man, who she said was over 6 feet tall, not to hurt her and told him to take what he wanted, but the man just kept telling her to be quiet and said "don't make me hurt you."
She said when he took her to the register to get money out, she was able to discretely push an alarm to call for help, but the customer arrived before police.
She said the man unplugged the store phone, and asked her if she had a cell phone.
After she said no, she said he took her to the back room and choked her. She went limp.
"I was thinking if it worked, he would leave," she said.
It didn't work. She said the man laid her on her belly, pulled her pants down, and rubbed her rear end and face, saying "let me look at you."
After that, she said he jerked her up, threw her in a corner and choked her again. She said he said he would "gut me like a pig."
She was able to pry his hand off her mouth and scream for help. She said he was punching her in the face when the customer came in.
Wild said she estimates the attack lasted about 10 to 15 minutes.
"It seemed like it lasted forever," she said.
Wild was feeling the physical effects on Tuesday. Her body was sore, it hurt to swallow and her face was swollen, she said. Her boss gave her a few days off work to recover.
She went into work on Tuesday for an interview with TV news, and needed to go in the back room for some ice.
"I just couldn't do it," she said. "I got so sick to my stomach."
But once she's home, the idle time gives her more time to replay the incident in her mind.
Wild couldn't see much of his face, because he had put sunglasses on and had a hood over his head. But she can constantly sees the image of his arms around her neck and the knife.
"When he was choking me, I thought I was going to die," she said.
Barker said that Clark could face 10 years to life if convicted of armed robbery. "We could have charged him with numerous other crimes, but those will be added when he is presented to the grand jury," he said.
Reach Erin Beck at erin.beck@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-5163 or follow @erinbeckwv on Twitter.