Alleged armed robbery victims leave scene; delay reporting incident

By Sheila A. Marshall

Managing Editor

Personnel of the Griffin Police Department’s Uniform Patrol Division on Thursday were dispatched to a residence in reference to an alleged armed robbery.

According to Capt. Dwayne Jones, the incident was reported to have occurred late Wednesday night at Little Caesars, located at 1699 North Expressway. However, authorities were not notified of the alleged incident until a 911 call was placed some time later from a secondary location.

“It was probably a good 45 minutes before we were notified,” Jones said. “The 911 call was actually made from the home of the manager. We think it happened around 11:30ish, but we didn’t get the call until 12:17 a.m.”

Jones said the manager who and a second Little Caesars employee were the only two people present at the time of the alleged robbery.

According to the manager, three black males entered the restaurant through the back door as the second employee was taking out the trash.

“They rushed in as he was opening the back door, and put them in the bathroom,” Jones said. “They don’t know how long they were in there, but it was a good while later when they looked out of the bathroom and the robbers were gone.”

Both employees then closed up the restaurant and left without notifying authorities a crime had allegedly taken place. The manager later placed a 911 call from his residence.

“When we responded, we actually didn’t respond to the scene of the crime,” Jones said.

Two of the suspects were said to have been wearing blue jackets with hoods, whose faces were covered with what appeared to be surgical-style masks.

The third suspect was reportedly wearing a camouflage jacket with a stocking hat, and had a green t-shirt or bandana covering his face.

“I don’t have anything on body size. They (the alleged victims) were really very vague, other than the clothing descriptions,” Jones said. “But two of the suspects were armed.”

Investigators are hopeful additional evidence will be obtained from in-store video surveillance footage.

“There was some camera footage and they’re attempting to analyze it, our crime scene guys are,” Jones said.

Anyone with information on this case is asked to contact Cpl. Kelly McKinney at 770-229-6450 or kmckinney@cityofgriffin.com.