MOULTRIE, Ga. — It wasn’t quite being caught red handed, but a suspect in robberies on Sunday and Monday was arrested wearing a green jacket and a hat matching the clothing worn during the thefts.

While police say the Monday night arrest solved two recent robberies, a man caught on camera in another robbery matches the jailed suspect’s method, but does not match his description.

The robber in each of the three incidents placed an item of merchandise on the store counter and then snatched money when an employee opened the cash register.

Police arrested Gregory Leon Sloan, 61, after a witness at a store hit earlier in the evening got a description of the car in which the robber left the business.

“That vehicle was later spotted by an officer on patrol,” Moultrie Police Department Inv. Tonero Bender said. “The officer made a traffic stop (during which) Mr. Sloan was positively identified as the person who went in the stores and did the robberies.”

The officer stopped the black Nissan Sentra at around midnight at the intersection of First Avenue Southeast and Talmadge Drive.

The clothing that Sloan was wearing at the time of the traffic stop matched that of the person who robbed Murphy Oil USA, 505 Veterans Parkway S., some time after 3 a.m. on Sunday and the 2601 S. Main St. Fred’s location shortly before 9 p.m. on Monday, police said.

During the theft at Fred’s, the suspect placed a pack of gum and a $1 bill on the counter, police said. When an employee opened the cash register to make change the suspect reached into the cash drawer. The amount of money stolen apparently was less than $70.

The robber used the same method at Murphy Oil, according to police.

Sloan of 2809 Fifth St. S.E., has been charged with two counts of robbery. No weapon was used at the stores and no one was injured.

In a Nov. 28 robbery at Somesh Package, 205 Fifth St. S.E., a man placed a bottle of Budweiser beer on the counter, and as the store owner made change the man reached over the counter and grabbed several bills from the cash register.

He then ran toward the direction of Second Avenue and Fifth Street Southeast.

In store video the suspect, a black male, is shown wearing a black hoodie pulled tight around his face so that little was showing. He appears noticeably younger than Sloan, however.

Several other snatch-and-grab thefts involving cigarettes instead of money also have been reported in recent days.

At about 12:30 a.m. Saturday a shoplifter made off with two cartons of cigarettes from the 1350 Veterans Parkway N. Chevron convenience store. The thief asked for the cigarettes and ran off with them after the clerk put them down on the counter.

At 7:33 p.m. Sunday a man wearing a hat stole five packs of Newport cigarettes at the 2795 West Blvd. Dollar General and then left in a black car, according to Colquitt County Sheriff’s Office reports.

The cases remain under investigation and police had not determined on Tuesday whether any of the unsolved incidents can be linked to others.