PENDLETON — Madison County sheriff’s deputies arrested two juveniles Thursday in connection with two convenience store armed robberies.

Those arrested were a 16-year-old and a 14-year-old who were both foster children in a home in the Summerlake subdivision in the southern part of Madison County, Sheriff Ron Richardson.

The two boys allegedly robbed the Pilot station at 7455 S. Indiana 13 in Pendleton early Thursday morning and had robbed a Ricker’s convenience store at 7788 S. Indiana 13 last week.

Richardson said county dispatchers alerted sheriff’s deputies to a robbery at the Pilot station at 1:49 a.m. Thursday. Dispatchers put out an alert describing the boys, who reportedly were armed with a hammer and a steel pipe in the robbery.

Sgt. Paul Kollros passed the boys, who had left the Pilot station on bicycles heading south on Ind. 13.

“As he turned the lights on to stop them, they turned around on their bikes and fled back north,” Richardson said. “One went up the exit ramp toward (Interstate 69), and one kept going north.”

When Kollros told the juvenile heading north on Ind. 13 to stop or he would release his canine, the youth struck a guardrail and fell off his bike, and Kollros took him into custody without incident.

Deputies, with the help of Indiana State Police and Lapel and Fortville police, set up a perimeter to search for the other suspect, whom they later found at his foster home. The two weapons were located near the area.

Richardson said the boys’ foster parents were fully cooperative with police. The 16-year-old automatically will be charged as an adult under Indiana law with two counts of B felony armed robbery. He remained in the Madison County Jail on Thursday in lieu of posting $20,000 bond.

The 14-year-old, who Richardson said would face the same charges, is in a juvenile facility.

Richardson said police had recovered items of evidence from the boys’ home including aluminum baseball bats that allegedly were used in the first robbery. The boys got away with an undetermined amount of cash and cigarettes from the Pilot station robbery, Richardson said.

The Sheriff’s Department continues to investigate the incidents.

Contact Aleasha Sandley: 640-4805, aleasha.sandley @heraldbulletin.com.