Men ask for store owner, punch clerk

A Cape Girardeau County store clerk was slightly injured Saturday in a seemingly unprovoked and "strange" attack, authorities said.

The county sheriff's department was called to Circle S Saddle Co. on Highway 25 near Gordonville around 2 p.m. for the assault, Lt. David James said.

According to the clerk, two men wearing baseball caps walked in and asked for the store owner. When they were told she was not there, the men grabbed the clerk, punched her in the face and pushed her into a stack of boxes, James said.

No money or items were stolen, according to James.

"It really doesn't make a lot of sense," he said of the attack. "It's a little bit strange."

The clerk's lip was injured, but she declined medical attention.

James speculated the punch may have been meant for the store's owner, Lisa Sparkman, whose husband awaits sentencing on federal convictions of arson and mail fraud charges.

The assailants fled the scene in a black truck with Arkansas plates, James said. They had not been caught by Saturday night.

Calls to Circle S Saddle Co. were not answered.