A man believed to be video technician is admitted to the MoFroYo yogurt store in the Little River Plaza Saturday afternoon shortly after an armed robbery was reported at the store. (Photo by Carl E. Hartdegen)
WESTFIELD – A frozen yogurt store on East Main Street was robbed early Saturday afternoon by a man who claimed to have a handgun.
Officer John Barnachez was the first officer to arrive at the Little River Plaza in response to a 1:16 p.m. call reporting an armed robbery and reports that three employees were in the MoFroYo store at the time of the robbery.
Barnchez said that the three workers gave similar accounts of the event and said that two of them had been working in a back room and the third was in a bathroom when an apparent customer entered the store and came to the door of the back room to get their attention.
The workers all reported that the suspect, a Hispanic man in his 30s, asked about the prices of various items and asked what he could buy for $3 before he came to the point.
The man, the employees said, had his hand in a packet as if he was holding something and said that he had a gun although he did not display one.
He said that there was no reason for anybody to get hurt and instructed two of the employees to lie on the floor. He demanded that the manager give him the money in the register and the manager complied.
The man told the employees to count to 100 before they got up and said that he would shoot anybody who got up too soon.
The manager said that, when he could no longer hear the suspect, he called police.
Sgt. Alex Baginski and Officer Charles Kielbasa also responded to the robbery and report that a search of the area did not yield a suspect.
Det. Sgt. Stephen K. Dickinson was notified of the robbery and came to the store to take charge of the investigation.
The store manger said that there are security cameras in the store but said that he did not know how to operate them.
The owner of the store was contacted and referred the officers to his video consultant who came to the store to assist in the recovery of video images.
Dickinson said later that he has developed some leads which he is pursuing.
