Chicago police are searching for the suspects wanted in a series of robberies across the city's West Town neighborhood, including one brazen crime that was caught on camera.
On Sunday night, two masked men with their guns stormed into Division Street Liquor and demanded cash, pointing the weapons at Alexandra Pazmeno and her co-worker.
“They held the guy that was working with me," said Division Street Liquor manager Motea Mosser. "They emptied his pockets. They took the purse of the lady. They took the safe that we have for cash.”
Within seconds, the suspects were gone, but not without the entire incident being caught on the store's video surveillance system. Mosser trained his employees to comply if their store is ever robbed.
It turns out, the same duo tried to rob the store just days before.
“We were expecting something like this,” he said. “Those two people, exactly those two people, we saw them last Tuesday. The lady saw them and she locked the doors. She felt something, and they tried to open and when the door was closed they immediately took off.”
On Sunday night, also in West Town, a similar incident unfolded at Chipp Inn, a bar on Greenview Avenue. Again, two armed men robbed customers inside. Then, the same thing happened at Ola’s Liquor on Damen. Charles Dutra was inside when the robbers stormed in.
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“He basically said he’s robbing the place and that he wants all of the money that we have,” Dutra said. “Obviously you’re scared. There’s two guys and one says he has a gun. What else are you supposed to do?"
At Division Street Liquor, the robbers made off with about $11,000 to $12,000. Pazmeno, though shaken up, said she was thankful to be alive.
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“God protect me, protect my partner," she said. " They don’t shoot us.”
No one was injured in any of the incidents.
The suspects are also believed to have robbed a man and woman walking on the sidewalk along Leavitt Street. Division Street Liquor's manager told NBC Chicago that the staff found about half of the stolen money in a back alley. That money, he said, was just enough to pay the business' rent.
Anyone with information about the robberies is asked to call Chicago police.
