Crime & Safety

Police Turn to Community on Papa John's Armed Robbery

A lot of leads quietly investigated in June robbery turn up cold, so Tosa police ask the public for help in solving robbery of Papa John's pizza on North Avenue.

Wauwatosa police kept a tight wrap on an armed robbery of a pizza place last month, with detectives following up leads they feared might drive the perpetrators underground if they went public.

But Tosa police now say those leads were dead ends, and they hope anyone with information about the June 26 robbery will come forward.

At about 10 that night, a cashier was alone in on the main floor of Papa John's, 11504 North Ave., while the owner was in the basement taking care of some paperwork.

The cashier said that two men entered the store together and began yelling, "Give me the money, open the safe, come on... " and then called him by name.

The cashier told police that when he heard his name being called, he said, "Are you serious?" and thought it was a joke.

It wasn't. One of the robbers went to the office door and looked in, the cashier said, while the other stood in front of him. Then the first suspect pulled a semi-automatic pistol, slid back the slide and put it to the back of his head.

The victim opened the safe, as ordered, and one of the men grabbed the cash bag, along with a "pencil box" containing only coins. He said the two robbers bumped into one another while they were grabbing the cash.

The cashier also told police he looked for a silent alarm button during the heist but couldn't find it in the moment. After the two men ran from the store, he did find an alarm button and pushed it.

He offered these descriptions:

The man who pulled the gun on him, he said, was black, 5-feet-8- to 5-feet-10-inches tall, weighed 100 to 135 pounds, was probably 22 to 24 years old, and was wearing a dark blue zippered hoodie pulled up to cover most of his face, plus a ski mask that covered his nose and mouth.

The cashier also said that subject walked funny and resembled a former employee who had a similar strange gait and had been fired for poor performance in early June.

The other subject, he said, was black with a dark complexion, also 5-feet-8- to 5-feet-10-inches tall, also weighed 100 to 135 pounds, was perhaps 18 to 20 years old, and wore a black baseball hat, black jeans, black shoes and black knit gloves, with his hat pulled down over his face.

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A witness at the Open Pantry store next door told police he'd seen the two suspects running from Papa John's. He described them as slightly taller and heavier that had the victim, and also said he thought one looked like a guy who'd been hanging around lately and had applied for a job at his store.

Other witnesses in the area told of seeing one man running, or two men walking, subjects heading to an SUV well to the north at Center and North and even at Burleigh and North.

Surveillance video was spotty at best and only showed the two running away outside Papa John's, with nothing up-close inside. Other than a vague confirmation of the sort of clothing the robbers were wearing, it didn't help.

Police learned that one of the two most recent applicants for jobs at Open Pantry had been stopped for a field interrogation and had a BB gun in his waistband. He was a suspect – but it turned out he didn't come close to matching either description.

The job-seekers at Papa John's also did not pan out as suspects, and so far nothing has turned up from State Crime Lab findings on DNA or fingerprint analysis.

Once detectives followed up all the leads they had, they were nowhere. A possible inside job, then again, maybe not.

"We've got nothing," said Wauwatosa Capt. Jeffery Sutter. "It's out there."

Anyone with any information about the robbery of Papa John's on June 26 is urged to call the Wauwatosa Police Department at 414-471-8430 and ask for the Investigative Bureau.

You may also call Wauwatosa Crime Stoppers at 414-771-8672. Information given to Crime Stoppers is anonymous, yet your information, if it leads to the arrest and conviction of the perpetrator of a serious crime, could bring a reward of up to $1,000.


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