The first robbery took place Sunday night at the Subway on 3751 Clyde Morris Boulevard in Port Orange. The other happened less than 2 hours later at the Perkins on 1286 Saxon Boulevard in Orange City.
The Orange City Police Department says it’s likely that the same people who robbed the Subway also robbed the Perkins because of several similar factors, including the number of suspects, what they were wearing and how they robbed each restaurant.
3 armed suspects wearing masks went into the Subway around 10:10pm Sunday, with 2 of them jumping over the counter and pointing a black handgun at an employee’s head while demanding money from the cash register and the safe, according to the Port Orange Police Department.
Per the incident report, the suspects got money from the register but weren’t able to get into the safe after the employee told them he was unable to open it. That’s when the employee claims the suspects took his phone, locked him inside a walk-in cooler and ordered him to stay inside or else he would be killed.
The employee managed to safely get out of the cooler around 5 to 10 minutes later and called 911 for help.
It was while POPD was working that scene that the Perkins robbery took place around midnight Sunday.
In that robbery, OCPD says 3 suspects – also armed and wearing masks that covered everything except their eyes – came into the restaurant through the front door and one of them pointed a gun at the manager’s head, demanding money from the cash register and the safe.
According to that incident report, the manager gave the robbers money from the register and the safe before he, 2 other employees and 2 customers were forced into a walk-in cooler and locked inside.
Officers say the victims were told to lie on their stomachs and not to leave the cooler before counting to 100 or else they would be killed.
The suspect also took away the victims’ wallets, cash and cell phones as well as destroyed the restaurant’s landlines before fleeing the store, forcing the restaurant manager to run to a nearby gas station to call 911 for help, according to the report.
The report also noted that the manager had activated the restaurant’s silent alarm but it malfunctioned somehow.
OCPD also found the victim’s cell phones and wallets in a sink and a bread cart when processing the scene, with nothing missing except cash from the wallets.
No injuries were reported in either incident. It’s unclear how much money was taken in both robberies.
Anyone with information on either incident is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 888-277-8477 to remain anonymous and possibly qualify for a cash reward.
Video above of Subway robbery is courtesy of POPD.
Copyright 2015 Southern Stone Communications.