A distinctive tattoo helped police identify a St. Paul man who was charged Monday in Ramsey County District Court with two counts of first-degree aggravated robbery in connection with the armed holdups of three service stations.

A SuperAmerica station at 1580 Ford Pkwy. and a Marathon Gas Station at 2525 W. 7th St., both in St. Paul, were robbed within minutes of each other the evening of July 27.

Scott P. McDonough, 32, also was charged in Dakota County with the armed robbery of another SuperAmerica station in Eagan that same night.

According to the Ramsey County complaints:

Police were called to the SuperAmerica on Ford Parkway at 6:46 p.m., where the clerk told the officer that a man pushed a gun into his body and ordered him to open the cash register. The robber took the $5, $10 and $20 bills and left in an older white Honda.

At 6:55 p.m., another officer went to the Marathon station, where the clerk told him that a man with a large black handgun had ordered her to open the register, then took the cash and left on foot.

In each instance, the robber wore a baseball cap with a green clover on the front.

Eagan police went to a Super- America station on Cliff Road at 8:44 p.m. and encountered a similar tale. In that incident, the robber showed the clerk the handgun but did not pull it out of his waistband.

Video cameras at each location showed that the suspect had a large tattoo of a clover or shamrock on his upper left arm. A query into a state database of people with such tattoos came up with McDonough.

Police then learned that McDonough had been arrested at 11:10 p.m. that night for criminal vehicular operation and that he had $937 cash on him when he was booked into the Hennepin County jail.

McDonough would not talk to police after his arrest. The gun used in the robberies has not been found, the complaints said.

Pat Pheifer • 612-741-4992