Michael Vangpa, of Dracut, pleaded guilty to a series of armed robberies in Tewksbury and Lowell on Christmas Eve 2020. Images were captured by security cameras and included in federal court filings by the FBI.

A Dracut man who spent his Christmas Eve robbing three different Lowell-area convenience stores at gunpoint pleaded guilty Thursday to two federal charges.

Michael Vangpa, 33, admitted he brandished a gun and threatened clerks and customers at convenience stores in Lowell and Tewksbury on Dec. 24, 2020, at one point firing his gun into a cardboard box and at another bludgeoning a store employee with the weapon, prosecutors said.

In United States District Court in Boston on Thursday, Vangpa admitted to one count of interfering with commerce by robbery and one count of using a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence.

He will return to court Oct. 14, the U.S. Attorney’s office said.

“Convicted felon Michael Vangpa’s crime spree on Christmas Eve during which he committed three commercial armed robberies within an hour, brandishing a handgun, put the store clerks in fear for their lives, and the public in danger,” said Joseph Bonavolonta, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Boston office.

On Christmas Eve, 2020, Vangpa hit two convenience stores in Lowell and another in Tewksbury in the span of an hour, in each instance, forcing the clerks to fork over money from the store at gunpoint, prosecutors said.

In his first stop at a 7-Eleven on Mammoth Road in Lowell, around 2 a.m., Vangpa entered the store and brandished his gun, demanding money from the register. Clad in a dark hoody, gloves and a mask, he fired his gun into a cardboard box under the counter, court records said.

Vangpa made off with $60 from the register and $600 in cigarettes, federal investigators said.

Fifteen minutes later, Vangpa arrived at a second 7-Eleven on Chelmsford Street, where he hit the clerk on the back of the head with his gun before making off with $200, according to court documents.

Vangpa’s final stop, according to investigators, took him to a Circle K convenience store on Andover Street in Tewksbury, where he stole $1,600 from the cash register.

The Dracut man had a history of armed robberies and firearm convictions, court documents showed. His car was identified by investigators following the Christmas Eve spree and he later surrendered himself to Nashua, New Hampshire, police after being discovered with a gun at a casino.

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