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Police: Man uses pitchfork to rob Waffle House

NORCROSS, Ga. — Norcross police are searching for a man who robbed a restaurant with a pitchfork.
 
Surveillance pictures showed the man, identified as Jeff Wooten, wearing coveralls and a ski mask as he used a pitchfork to force employees of the Buford Waffle House into a back room Thursday night. Chief Warren Summers said Wooten then went for the cash register.
 
"When he realized he couldn't get the cash register open, he took the whole cash register and exited the store with his pitchfork," Summers said.
 
Witnesses said as Wooten stumbled out of the Waffle House, he dropped the pitchfork but was able to hang on to the cash register. He ran up the sidewalk to nearby Rite Aid where he'd left his truck, but the Waffle House employees weren't done with him yet.
 
"Once he didn't have a pitchfork, he wasn't as brazen. I know that," Summers said.
 
Police said two of the workers took off after him and used the pitchfork as a weapon on him. They were able to smash out the back window of his truck and apparently get a few good licks in on him before he escaped. Detectives have warrants out for Wooten for armed robbery.
 
"It wouldn't be an offensive weapon in your garden, but it was in a Waffle House," Summer said.
 
Police said Wooten lives not too far away from the Waffle House, and apparently took the pitchfork from a relative's house where he is staying .