DECATUR - Two 20-year-old Decatur men were charged Monday with one count of armed robbery and two counts of aggravated kidnapping in connection with an incident late Thursday at Prairie Avenue and 22<+>nd Street.

Kelley S.A. Allston and Bobby M. Thomas also were charged with aggravated unlawful use of a weapon and unlawful possession of a weapon by a felon.

They were brought Monday before Associate Judge James Coryell to hear the charges against them. Each one asked for time to hire an attorney and Coryell scheduled an appearance of counsel for Nov. 9. They were returned to the county jail under $75,000 bond each.

Police officers were sent to the 2100 block of East Prairie Avenue at 11:58 p.m. Thursday to investigate reports of shots being fired. En route, they were directed to the Huck's Convenience Store, 204 N. 22<+>nd St., from which an 18-year-old Decatur man had called police to report a robbery.

That man stated his 18-year-old friend from Cerro Gordo had been taken at gunpoint about 11:38 p.m. Thursday shorting after they arrived on the Huck's parking lot and met Thomas, who he knew, and another man he did not know, but who later was identified as Allston, said police officer Bradley A. Hall in a sworn statement filed in court.

Thomas immediately began yelling at them and the Decatur man advised he fled across U.S. 36 believing his friend was right behind him, Hall said. When he realized his friend was not present, he hid for a few minutes and then returned to the Huck's parking lot but no one was there, Hall said.

The man received a call on his cellular phone and stated he heard Thomas' voice instruct him to place money in his car and park it in a lot in the 100 block of North 22<+>nd Street, which he did, Hall said. The man took a golf club from his car for protection, hid behind a garbage container and watched his car until Allston approached the vehicle, Hall said.

As he ran toward the car, which Allston had entered, the suspect got out of the vehicle and ran, Hall said. The 18-year-old then went to Huck's to call police, he said.

Neighbors informed officers two men seen running in the area and Thomas and Allston were found in a garage in the 2100 block of East Wood Street, Hall said. The Cerro Gordo man was located and both victims identified the pair as their assailants, he said.

Officers also found two handguns in bushes near a house in the 2000 block of East Prairie Avenue that neighbors had directed them toward because they had seen men run between two houses, Hall said.

ringram@herald-review.com|421-7973