MESA, AZ (3TV/CBS 5) — Jarring moments were caught on camera at a Mesa toy store when an armed crook robbed the place with kids inside during the middle of the day earlier this year. It happened on April 16 at the store Teddy Bears El Paraiso on Brown Road near North Horne. Surveillance video from Silent Witness shows a few adults in the store with three kids playing in one of the aisles. At around 1:30 p.m., a man with a gun in his right hand comes into the screen and orders the customers on the other side of the store. The kids and adults are seen with their hands up.
The robber then goes over to the register and demands cash. The worker hands over a wad of cash. A man walks into the store during the robbery, and the suspect orders him over to where the other customers are. The worker hands over some more cash and then raises his arms and shoulders as if to show he didn’t have any more money. The armed man takes the register and slams it on the counter, as coins go everywhere. The suspect eventually leaves the store. Princess Doll House
The suspect is described as a man in his mid-to-late-20s. 5′7″ to 5′9″, about 150-160 lbs and was wearing blue jeans, a long-sleeved orange shirt, a black baseball cap, a black head mask, a red banana, a black glove on his left hand and gray sneakers with a white stripe.
“I get nervous. I don’t feel safe,” said store manager Eliseo Francisco. The trauma of being robbed at gunpoint kicks in every time he clocks in. “You can tell when someone has the intention to do a lot of harm. I saw that in his (suspect’s) eyes.”
His 9-year-old son was with him behind the register the entire time. “When he pointed the gun at me, I knew he would shoot me if I didn’t give him what he wanted. At that moment, I prayed to God to help me because it was life or death,” said Francisco. He said the store also transfers money to other countries and believes that’s why they were targeted. However, he said they don’t keep a lot of money in the register.
The suspect walked away with at least $800. Since the suspect remains on the loose, a barrier around the register and a new door chime was installed. “I would feel more calm when he’s arrested and not able to do this again,” said Francisco.
Anyone with information about the case is asked to call Silent Witness at 480-WITNESS.
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