Man holds up gas station with gun and potato

Jersey City police still can't figure out why a man held up a gas station on Sunday holding a gun in one hand and a potato in the other.

Stan Eason, a spokesman for the Jersey City Police Department, said people might have got the idea from movies and TV shows, such as CSI, that a potato can be used to the muffle the sound of a gun.

"In movies I've seen where they've used a potato on the end of a gun as a silencer," Eason said.

But firing a gun into a potato basically amounts to a very dangerous way to make potato salad, Eason said. "It's pretty much ineffective as far as becoming a true silencer," he said. According to a police ballistics expert, the spud would simply explode in a gunman's face, Eason said.

Hudson County Prosecutor Edward DeFazio said he has heard of potatoes being used as silencers before, but he's never seen a case here. "I've heard of that," he said. "I haven't seen it in reality."

The potato-wielding robber is still on the loose. He is described as 30 to 35 years old, of strong build and having red dreadlocks.