Family Dollar employees hope for swift capture of store robbers

A string of armed robberies at metro Atlanta Family Dollar stores has employees worried, and the chain is insisting it is taking all the precautions it can.

Police tell Channel Two Action News there have been at least seven robberies at the retail chain since late November.

Employees at some of the stores said they've been told of even more holdups.

The latest holdup occurred in Fairburn, where employees said they knew they were going to get hit because of the recent rash of crimes.

Fairburn police said two gunmen burst into the store just before closing time Monday night. One employee, who didn't want to be identified, told Channel 2's Tony Thomas she was one of three employees in the store at the time of the crime.

"I was straightening up the shelves when a dude with a shotgun came towards me. After I seen that, I'm hitting the floor," she said.

Surveillance video given to Channel 2 Action News by the store manager shows the men taking over the Family Dollar. They held the one employee at gunpoint, demanding to see the manager, who was the only person who could open the store's safe.

"He said, 'I'm going to let you have it unless you tell me,'" the employee said.

The video shows the manager had already darted out the front door, along with the third employee.

Similar scenes have played out in Family Dollar stores from Athens to south Fulton County in recent weeks.

Staci Hill is the assistant manager at the Family Dollar store on Campbellton Road in Atlanta. She was in the store in late December when two gunmen came in demanding money.

"He put the gun back to my head and told me I was going to open that safe," Hill said.

Hill said she couldn't remember the numbers needed to open the safe, and the gunmen actually told her to calm down and remember.

"The only thing I could see was my family, and I wasn't in the picture," Hill said.

She said the robbers took their time in her store, at one point even telling customers who walked in on the crime to take what they wanted and they wouldn't be hurt.

Hill said she hasn't been back to work since the robbery.

In Fairburn, police said they have a possible break. On the surveillance video from one of the holdups, one of the gunmen took off his mask and looked at the camera before he walked out.

Employees said they need help finding the robber before someone gets killed.

"There are no new procedures being done about it, no new security, no new cameras. It's a possibility they might come back," one employee told Thomas.

Family Dollar spokesman Joshua Braverman gave Thomas a statement, saying, "Family Dollar is working closely with the Police Department in respect to the robberies in the Atlanta area. We utilize numerous security tools to help deter robberies and react to individual robbery trends. We have a plan in place and are working diligently with law enforcement to insure our stores remain a safe working and shopping environment."