Andy's Restaurant robbed at gunpoint on Thursday
A local fast-food restaurant was robbed at gunpoint Thursday night, with the thieves reportedly making off with nearly $650 cash from the safe.
The incident occurred at Andy’s restaurant, 1305 N. West Ave., just over a week after a break-in, in which cash was also stolen from the safe.
El Dorado police were called to the scene at 9:42 p.m. Thursday in reference to an armed robbery.
Upon arrival, officers reported seeing a vehicle leave the rear driveway of the restaurant, turning east on Eighth. Officers stopped the vehicle.
The driver told police she had just arrived at the restaurant to pick up a relative who worked there and she saw “two tall, slender subjects” run from the back of the building toward the El Dorado Municipal Auditorium, which is adjacent to Andy’s.
The woman said she lost sight of the two people. Her relative then ran outside and told her the restaurant had just been robbed.
The witness said she began driving toward the auditorium to see if she could locate the suspects, and it was at that point that officers stopped her.
Two employees were working in the restaurant when the incident occurred, police said.
One of the employees told officers that he had stepped just outside the back door to make a phone call when someone pressed what he believed to be a gun to the back of his head.
He said the suspect began shoving him toward the back door of the restaurant, and as he walked inside, the suspect continued shoving him forward with the object pressed to his head.
The employee said he called out to his co-worker
called out to his co-worker several times.
His co-worker told police that he rounded a corner and saw two males behind the first employee.
The suspects were described as black males, approximately 6 feet tall,
wearing dark blue jeans, black gloves and black masks covering their faces below the nose.
The male with the handgun was wearing a black hoodie and the other, a dark blue hoodie, the second employee told officers.
He said the suspect in the dark blue hoodie shoved him toward the store’s safe, and when the employee dropped to his knees,
the suspect ordered him “to get the money.”
The suspect pressed an object to the back of his head, he said. The first employee told police the object was a gun.
The second employee said he was “extremely nervous and shaking” and had difficulty entering the combination code to the safe.
He told police the suspect
appeared to grow impatient and yelled, “You’re taking too long!”
The employee said he successfully entered the code upon his third attempt, and the suspects shoved him and his co-worker into a corner and swiped cash from the safe.
The employees said they then heard loud footsteps receding and the back door slam shut.
Police summoned the manager of the business to the scene, and he said nearly $648.37 cash was missing from the safe.
The incident occurred days after an officer on routine patrol noticed that a window was shattered at Andy’s.
Employees said thieves made off with an undetermined amount of cash from the safe during the
burglary, which was reported Sept. 19.
At the time, the manager said employees reported that a man had attempted to hide in the restroom earlier, but he fled the business when they approached him.