Cumming police are crediting the public for helping crack a recent armed robbery case at a smoke shop.

Cumming Police Sgt. Bryan Zimbardi said the arrests of two suspects Monday night were made following “quite a few tips over the last couple of days.”

“Some of them turned out to be perfect information,” Zimbardi said. “We had everything from supposedly people that went to school with them, all the way up to concerned citizens that thought they saw them driving around. We had the gamut really.”

According to police, John Poss, 21, of Flowery Branch and Elmer Mathews, 17, of Dawsonville have each been charged with one count of armed robbery and felony theft by taking in connection with the Feb. 29 robbery of Puff N Stuff on Atlanta Road.

The suspects are being held at the Forsyth County Detention Center. Bond hearings are scheduled for Wednesday, authorities said.

The suspects were arrested late Monday at neighboring homes in Flowery Branch, Zimbardi said.

For the robbery, Zimbardi said Poss reportedly went in the store and pretended to be a customer until Mathews entered. 

“At some point, his buddy came in and took him … hostage, with what they said was a BB gun later,” Zimbardi said.

“He basically just told the store clerk that he needed to give him all the cash in the register or he was going to kill the customer.”

The clerk handed over an undisclosed amount of money. The two suspects left separately before meeting back up again later, according to police.