Police see a link in fast-food robberies
8/11/2003Three aggravated robberies of fast-food restaurants in less than 14 hours Saturday, followed by an attempted aggravated robbery a few hours later, were part of “a bad weekend” in Toledo, city police Detective Mike Riddle said.
Some, but not all, the robberies appear likely to be related, he said.
Suspects in the robberies at Wendy's Old Fashioned Hamburgers, Subway, and Steak-N-Shake were described as white males. Police said the suspect in a Rally's Restaurant robbery was described as a black male.
It started about 2:30 a.m. Saturday, when an employee at Rally's, 1035 West Bancroft St., was approached by a gunman as she got into her car. She handed over her purse, which held the restaurant's night deposit, and the suspect ran toward Horace Street, chased by a witness. Her purse was found, without the deposit bag, in an alley behind Robinson Junior High, where the witness lost the suspect.
A short time later, a white male entered Steak-N-Shake, 2141 South Reynolds Rd., with a mask over his face and a gun and took cash.
About 4 p.m., in the same area, employees of the Subway restaurant at 540 South Reynolds noticed a white man in his 20s pacing in front of the restaurant. He entered about 10 minutes later wearing a black mask and a tan, hooded sweatshirt, walked to the counter, pulled out a black handgun, and demanded money. He was given an undetermined amount of cash and ran east toward Reynolds. A customer in the drive-thru who witnessed the robbery chased the suspect until losing sight of him.
About 7:20 that evening, police were called to a robbery in progress at Wendy's Old Fashioned Hamburgers at 3454 Dorr St. A white male in his 20s wearing a black mask and tan hooded sweatshirt pointed a black handgun at an employee and demanded money. But the suspect left before getting any money and fled across Dorr. Witnesses described him as 6 feet, 1 inch tall and 150 pounds with long, dark hair.