Sandwich Shop Miracle- Inspirational Stories of Faith Book 1 Page 3
Chapter 3: Devils in Hoods
“Give us all of the money from the register,” the bald man demanded.
“Yeah, don’t give us a problem either,” the ponytailed man chimed in. He slowly backed up towards the door to keep watch for any incoming customers.
Loretta responded in a shaking voice, “Just please don’t hurt me. Please.”
She slowly lifted her arms up in the air, showing the men that she didn’t have anything in her hands. Lowering her right arm, Loretta opened the register. She started pulling out all of the cash in the drawer. The bald man pulled out a tan grocery store bag, taking the money Loretta gave him. When she was done handing him the paper bills, she began to give him the coins in the cash register as well. He greedily snatched them up, as his brown eyes lit up in sick glee.
Loretta gave him the last of the currency left in the drawer. She mumbled in an almost inaudible voice, “That’s all the money in the register. I don’t have anymore.”
“Say what? You ain’t got no more? What’s that supposed to mean?” he exclaimed, furiously glaring at her.
“I don’t have any more money in the drawer to give you,” Loretta choked, raising her right arm.
“No more money? She’s got to be kidding,” the ponytailed man cackled. “Check the drawer man.”
The bald man released the gun and roughly went through the cash register. Becoming more annoyed that he couldn’t find any more money, he snapped, angrily telling his partner, “Man, there ain’t no more. What you wanna do?”
“Screw it, let’s trash the place!” the young man with the ponytail ranted, walking over to one of the tables and flipped over the chairs. He hurled another chair at one of the metallic colored trash bins as he watched trash spilled across the white tiled floor. Next, he took the display stand where the bags of chips were and threw it against the wall, knocking a big hole in the drywall.
Loretta begged, “Oh God, please don’t destroy my restaurant. Just please leave.”
The young thug ignored her pleas as he continued to vandalize the shop. He dumped the contents of the second metal trash bin across several tables. Being unable to watch anymore, Loretta covered her face with her hands, lowering her head.
The long haired robber was about to pick up the empty trash bin to toss it towards the door when he suddenly stopped and dropped it on the floor beside him. Beads of sweat dripped down his face as he ran over to his partner. Nearly tripping over his shoe laces, he ordered, “Let’s get outta here! Someone’s coming!”
As the two men turned to run out the door, a small royal blue cloth bag fell from the jacket pocket of the ponytailed criminal. It landed under the food display counter. None of them noticed the fallen item as they sprinted out of the sandwich shop.
Loretta cautiously removed her hands from her face. She was relieved to see the familiar white and steel blue factory uniform from the paper plant. It was one of the supervisors Bob rushing through the door towards Loretta.
“Oh my goodness Loretta. What happened? Are you okay?” Bob frantically asked.
Loretta cleared her throat as she walked from behind the counter. Her hands were still shaking. She struggled to give Bob an answer.
After taking a few deep breaths, Loretta replied in a shaky voice, “Thank God you’re here Bob. I just got robbed.”
“Was it those two guys that just ran out the door?” Bob implored as he pulled out his cell phone from his jeans pocket.
“Yeah. We got to call the police.”
“I’m already on it,” Bob said as he began dialing.
As Bob spoke on the phone with the police, Loretta turned over the open and closed sign. She then walked to the refrigerator and grabbed two bottles of water. Loretta placed them on the counter next to the cash register and waited for Bob to get off the phone.
“We’re lucky. The dispatcher said there’s a unit about a mile from here. They should be here any moment,” Bob advised Loretta. “I’ll stay here with you until they come. I’m so sorry this happened to you Loretta. At least you are all right. “
Loretta handed Bob one of the water bottles, asking him, “Would you like something to drink?”
“Sure. Thanks,” Bob responded, taking the bottle from Loretta’s hand. He unscrewed the cap and took a few swallows of water.
The two of them heard a faint siren in the distance and looked out the door. They saw a black and white police car coming in the sandwich shop’s direction. Once the patrol car was parked, a female and male police officer exited the car.
The tall blonde female officer carried a camera in her hand. Her partner held a small clipboard with a stack of paper attached to it. He was tall in stature like the lady, with broad muscular shoulders, slicked back auburn hair and a mouth stash. His stern facial expression indicated the focus he had on doing his job. Loretta felt reassured by their presence.
As the two of them walked through the door, the male officer introduced himself to Bob and Loretta.
“Good afternoon. I am Officer Collins,” he announced, pointing to his partner. “This is my partner Officer Thomas. We are here to take a report and some photos of the crime scene. May I speak with the owner of this establishment?”
Loretta took a step forward as she told Officer Collins, “I am the owner of this place. My name is Loretta Jenkins.”
“Can you tell me what happened?” Officer Collins inquired as he prepared to write. The female officer walked around the sandwich shop, snapping pictures with her black Sony Cyber shot digital camera.
“Well,” Loretta began to explain, “Two young men walked into the shop. One was black with a bald head. The other kid I believe was Hispanic with longer black hair that he wore in a ponytail. They came in wearing tennis shoes, jeans, sunglasses and black hooded sweat jackets. The two of them didn’t look much older than maybe nineteen or twenty. When they came into the shop, I said ‘hi’ and asked them what I could get for them. That’s when the bald headed kid stuck a gun out of his pocket at me and demanded all the money from the register. When I ran out of money in the register, the long haired kid started trashing the place.” Loretta paused for a moment and continued, pointing to Bob. “When they saw Bob here coming, they ran out of the shop.
“I see,” Officer Collins commented as he looked over his notes. “About how tall do you think they were Ms. Jenkins?”
“I am not sure. They looked like they were both around the same height. I would say about 5’10.”
“Were there any particular scars, marks, tattoos or piercings that you could see on the perpetrators?”
“No. Not that I could tell,” Loretta answered.
Officer Collins directed his eyes over to Bob. “What about you sir? Did you get a good look at them?” he questioned.
“No. They were running away, heading towards the main road. They got into a tan Toyota Corolla and drove off. I would say it was maybe a mid nineties model.”
“Thank you. What is your name sir and where were you coming from?” Officer Collins asked, continuing to write on his clipboard.
“My name is Bob Edwards. I am a shift supervisor from the Weston Paper Plant. It’s a few buildings down from here.”
By that time, Officer Thomas had finished taking pictures of the sandwich shop. She motioned to Bob as she said to him, “Come with me sir. I will finish up with you and get your contact information.” The two of them exited the sandwich shop, leaving Loretta alone with Officer Collins.
“I think I am about done here. Do you have any surveillance video we can get copies of Ms. Jenkins?” he inquired, reading over his notes on the clipboard.
“Yes. I do,” Loretta replied.
“That’s very good. One of our investigators will be contacting you about collecting that,” Officer Collins remarked. “What is your contact number?”
“My cell phone number is 615-900-7514.”
“Thank you very much,” he said as he wrote down her phone number. When he was done,
Officer Collins reached into his pocket and handed her a police business card. “Contact us anytime you need to. We will be keeping in touch with you as well Ms. Jenkins. I hope we will be able to capture the men who did this to you. In the meantime, until we can gather more evidence and tie up any additional loose ends, you will need to close down the sandwich shop. Do you have any questions?”
“No, I don’t think so,” Loretta replied, looking around the restaurant solemnly.
Loretta put the business card in her pocket when she heard a familiar voice outside of the shop. When she turned to look out the door, she saw Gus was outside talking to the female officer. She could no longer see Bob with her.
Loretta looked back at Officer Collins. “Officer, could I please speak with that gentleman outside talking to your partner before I close up? His name is Gus, I lease out this space from him,” she said.
Officer Collins took a quick look outside at Gus, and nodded yes in confirmation.
“We will be outside. When you are done talking and you have gathered your things to close, let us know so we can block off the perimeter.” He then proceeded to walk out of the door to meet up with his partner. After a minute Gus opened the door to the shop.