(La Porte County, IN) - A man is facing allegations he took thousands of dollars two men brought to gamble with while playing cards in the parking lot of a truck stop outside Michigan City.  Darrell Noel, III 40, is charged in LaPorte Circuit Court with Level 3 felony robbery.

 

According to court documents, the Cincinnati, Ohio man on August 28th knocked on the door of a camper attached to a pick-up truck in the parking lot of Love’s Truck Stop along U.S. 421 near Interstate 94.  Two men inside the camper, who didn't know the suspect, accepted his offer to “double” their money in a card game to be played between two semi-trucks parked in the lot nearby, police said.

 

Police said they showed up with $10,000 in cash and left the rest of the $17,000 they had in a sack inside the camper.  At some point, Noel allegedly grabbed $7,000 from the men and took off in a pick-up truck across the parking lot.

 

Wanting their money back, the victims held on to the driver’s side door while being dragged across the pavement, according to court documents.  Police said one of the men hanging on to the truck let go and was run over by one of the back wheels of the fleeing vehicle, which then crashed into a semi parked in the lot.  Police said the man suffered a number of abrasions on his skin and a possible fractured ankle.

 

Noel allegedly fled the scene in the vehicle, which was stolen from a car rental agency in Cincinnati.

 

Noel, who was booked into the La Porte County Jail on Sunday, was being held on $20,000 bond.  He could face anywhere from a 3 to 16 year sentence.