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YOU READ IT HERE FIRST: Police say the same man apparently was involved in the overnight holdup of an Elmwood Park gas station early this morning and a frightening liquor store robbery in town Friday night, in which four customers were forced to the floor at gunpoint and another was smacked in the head with what might have been a blackjack.
Employees at the Valero station on Route 46 west told police a man in a dark hooded sweatshirt and ski mask covering the bottom half of his face pointed a dark-colored handgun at a clerk, took more than $500 in cash at gunpoint around 1 a.m. today.
The employees said the robber first pointed the dark-colored gun at the convenience store clerk, who ran into an office, Elwood Park Police Chief Donald Ingrasselino said.
After snatching an envelope holding more than $200 in cash off the counter, he headed for a pump jockey sitting inside a booth, the employees told police.
The attendant said the robber ordered him inside, pointed the gun at him and ordered him to open the cash register. He said he complied, and the bandit took $300 in cash.
The robber “told the victim to give him the money from his pockets also, but the victim told [him] he did not have any more money,” the chief said. The robber fled on foot on Meyer Street, he said.
The employees described him as black, about 5-foot-8 with a thin build.
A robber fitting a similar description made off with $7,500 in cash, $1,200 in calling cards and an undetermined amount of lottery tickets after pointing a similar gun at a clerk at All Star Liquors and Deli on Broadway Friday night, Ingrasselino said.
Only this time, the robber had a partner — described as white or Hispanic, about 5-foot-11 with a medium build and wearing a black jacket, blue jeans, ski-mask style goggles over his face and panty hose — who ordered four people in the store into the back at gunpoint, had them lie down and took their wallets, jewelry, cellphones and other valuables.
Both robbers then smashed the cellphone against the floor, so they couldn’t be used.
As they left, the robbers encountered a customer walking in. Ingrasselino said they “struck [him] over the head with a blunt object, possibly a blackjack.” He was later treated at Hackensack University Medical Center, the chief said.
The Bergen County Sheriff’s Department recovered evidence from both scenes that could help police catch whoever was responsible.
The chief asked that anyone with information about either incident to call the Elmwood Park Police Department Department Detective Bureau: 201.796.2181.
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