Atlanta

Armed man robs coffee shop, steals employee’s car

ATLANTA — A local coffeehouse is trying to help an employee after an armed robbery last week.

Pictures from surveillance video show a man walking towards Hodgepodge Coffeehouse on Moreland Avenue on Thursday. The director of operations said the man robbed the business and stole his employee’s car.

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“The individual that came in came in after two customers. Waited for them to leave. He ordered a drink and acted as if he was looking for money as the other people left,” said Daniel Rodriguez, the director of operations at Hodgepodge Coffeehouse.

The employee who was inside couldn’t believe what happened next.

“He held our employee at gunpoint,” Rodriguez said.

Rodriguez said the man told his employee to put all the money in a bag.

“He bruised her. It wasn’t with the gun or anything. He was trying to force his way through everywhere and telling them where to go. At the end, he took all of their possessions: wallet, keys, house keys, purse, everything. He took her car,” Rodriguez said.

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Rodriguez said his team posted a picture of his employee’s car as soon as they realized it was stolen, hoping someone would spot it. The victim’s relative created a GoFundMe page, hoping the funds will help.

“Right now, what we’ve done is instituted a two-week paid time off for the employee and also trauma counseling because this is something that nobody needs to go through,” Rodriguez said.

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It’s an incredibly scary situation that Rodriguez said an employee of a CVS also experienced recently. There is a picture of the suspect from surveillance cameras.

“He was potentially involved in a same armed robbery at CVS over at the Highlands on Monday of last week, and they mentioned it was the same calculated thing, he didn’t touch anything, he waited until it was just him and the employee,” Rodriguez said.

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