Security footage shows a disgruntled customer choose a criminal route to get food from a Roscoe’s Chicken & Waffles after being asked to wear a mask.
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According to ABC7, the unidentified suspect was denied service at the Pasadena restaurant, so he used the threat of a gun to demand food. He ordered the cooks to place a substantial amount of food in a bag before running away from the building. Restaurant staff confirmed to law enforcement the suspect entered as a customer without a mask and was asked to leave and come back with a face covering. Instead, he pushed to the back of the restaurant armed.
Employees were confused initially because cash registers were kept upfront. The news outlet reported, he made it clear he did not seek cash, just the food he intended to order before the restaurant requested he put on a mask or leave.
“He comes straight toward me with a gun, pointing at me and saying put all the chicken in the bag,” said cook Robert Gonzalez. According to the report, the armed man ordered the bag be filled with chicken, waffles, and syrup. “I almost got shot over stupidity, I guess,” Gonzalez said.
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Restaurant manager Angela Prieto confirmed no cash was stolen, only the food.
“He didn’t take any cash,” Prieto said to ABC7. “He actually took chicken and before he walked out the door he took syrup for his chicken.”
They continued to describe how the intense situation endangered staff who were worried for their safety throughout the ordeal before managing to calm down.
“They were feeling scared, especially my cashier. She was very, very scared. And when I first talked to her, she was basically hysterical, but after a while, she calmed down and started laughing about it because she realized all he did was take some chicken,” Prieto recalls.
According to CBS Los Angeles, the man stole already prepared takeout orders as the employees ran out the back of the building to safety. None of the employees were injured during the incident. The suspect wore a dark blue shirt, and since he refused to wear a mask, his face was captured by surveillance video.
He fled the scene in a light-colored sedan with another passenger. The Pasadena Police Department and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department are still searching for a suspect.
“I understand our chicken is good, but, I mean, that’s some expensive chicken he’s got there,” Gonzalez said to CBS. “It was just pretty stupid and crazy at the same time.”
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