Police are reviewing surveillance footage of four armed men following the robbery of $1.1 million from Popeye’s Vlissengen Road outlet on Friday.
The bandits were caught on tape during the robbery and yesterday ranks of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) visited the business to review its tapes in hopes of capturing the perpetrators.
According to reports, the four men entered the establishment around 10 pm on Friday and faultlessly executed the robbery, shortly before closing time.
An employee of the business told Stabroek News that the robbery happened very quickly. “They just came in and run through in less than a minute. They came in and said, ‘nobody move!’ When they said that I tek one look and that was it,” the man said. He added, “It happen so fass; real fass. However they plan it, they plan it real good because they pull it off real fass.”
He further said that only two of the men were armed while they all wore hats low in their faces with handkerchiefs over their mouths.
At the time, a few customers were in the restaurant; one delivery man was robbed of his cash while another man had his cellphone taken away.
By time the employees ran out shouting for help, the bandits had managed to escape in a waiting vehicle. Police, the employee said, responded quickly while the hired security firm arrived about two minutes after the law enforcement agency.
According to reports, the guard had been out of his post at the time of robbery.
Police said that about 10.15 pm two men, one armed, entered the restaurant and held up the supervisor Mahendra Persaud, 27. Investigations are in progress, they said.
The robbery came one day after the franchise opened a new $700 million restaurant on Camp Street.
