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VERIFY: Are gas stations required by law to have security cameras?

A Warner Robins gas station where a man was killed by a robber didn't catch it on tape. We looked into whether it's required by law for stores to have cameras

WARNER ROBINS, Ga. — "We do not have a recording of the incident that happened Sunday afternoon," Warner Robins Police Chief John Wagner said.

He's looking into why the gas station where Navaneetbhai Patel was killed by a robber didn't catch it on camera.

"We know that there had been some work that was done in the area and there was a blackout. We're checking to see if the video was showing that it was recording when indeed it was not," Wagner said.

Captain Brad Wolfe from the Bibb County Sheriff's Office says they can tell a lot from gas station camera footage.

"It oftentimes can pick up vehicles as well, could give us a tag number, could give us other persons that are with this party, if there's people in the vehicle or if somebody outside was a lookout -- there's a lot of information we can get immediately from that good image," Wolfe said.

But are gas stations in Bibb County and Warner Robins required by law to have security cameras?

"The City of Warner Robins has two ordinances involving security cameras. One involves places that actually sell alcohol and also any place that has a coin gambling-type devices," Wagner said.

"If you're selling alcohol packaged to go, you've got to have security cameras that are good enough to capture the image of a person, so they hopefully, will be identifiable by law enforcement if something were to happen," Wolfe said.

So we verified that security cameras are required by law for stores that sell alcohol in both Bibb County and Warner Robins. Also, stores with gambling machines are required to in Warner Robins.

"We'll be checking in, I guess, this is the warning for these type stores. We're going to be out, we're going to be checking on them," Wagner said.

Wagner says there's a fine for stores without security cameras.

Neither ordinance states how much it would cost.

RELATED: Warner Robins man killed in gas station armed robbery identified

RELATED: Warner Robins dollar store robbed at gunpoint

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