Robbers held a gun on a gas station attendant Sunday evening and made off with cash, cigarettes and cigars, and a Children's Miracle Network donation jar.
At 5:38 p.m. Sunday, police were called to the Speedway gas station at 6804 W. North Ave., on the report of an armed robbery.
A female attendant told officers that two men dressed in black hooded sweatshirts had entered the storefront, one with a handgun already drawn. He cocked the gun and said, “You know what time it is,” and told her to open the cash register.
He then told her, “Get on the floor and don’t touch the button” – presumably meaning any alarm. The woman went to the floor directly below the register, she said, and while the gunman robbed the drawer of cash, the second man, who was carrying a cloth bag, began grabbing packs of cigarettes and cigarillos, dropping packs on her as she cowered below.
After several witnesses spotted them in the act, they grabbed the Children's Miracle Network jar off the counter and ran.
A 22-year-old man told police he had walked in on the crime in progress. He said he entered the store and saw the two hooded men, who ducked down in a corner when they saw him, and the cashier crouched behind the counter with her hands in the air.
He turned and ran out the door and into the alley behind, where he knocked on a back door and asked the resident to call 911. He saw the two men run east through the alley and then turn north on 67th Street.
Another man was just pulling in to the gas station when he saw the first witness run out, then saw the two men inside and knew it was a robbery. He pulled out and dialed 911, and said police arrived just as he hung up the phone.
A woman told police she had just pulled up to a gas pump and gotten out of her car when she saw the two men walk in to the store, hooded and carrying a bag. She recognize it as a robbery, jumped back in her car and pulled around next to another customer, asking him to call police.
She then watched as the robbery unfolded, seeing one of the men shove the clerk and then go for the cash register as the other began taking cigarettes. She also saw them run out of the store and then east through the alley toward 67th Street.
Meanwhile, a second Speedway employee was in a back room and noticed the robbery occurring on live video surveillance. She was unable to get a good look at either subject’s face, and she waited until they left to come out.
Police reviewed video and released the following composite description based on their observations and those of the several witnesses: Both men were black, 16 to 20 years old, about 5-feet-8-inches tall, 160 to 180 pounds, each wearing black hooded sweatshirts and black jeans.
The gunman was described as having a round, chubby face – one witness called it a “cabbage patch” face – and wore his hair in short dreadlocks. No one got a particularly good look at the face of the second man, but it was noted that he wore one black glove and one orange one. No vehicle was seen, and police failed to locate the suspects or any evidence in the area.
And then there was the one that made me want to cry...couple of kids walked in and asked for a job application, I turned and looked in a file for about 15 seconds, and when I turned around again the young men, were gone together with the money from the MACC Fund collection jar. The irony, of course is that these kids or someone close to them could have been helped by that very charity.