Local

Crooks hit Sandy Springs store twice in 2 days, threatens employee

SANDY SPRINGS, Ga. — A Sandy Springs business owner is picking up the pieces after, she says, someone burglarized her store twice in two days and robbed one of her employees at gunpoint.

Police say someone broke through the front door of the La Pasadita grocery store on North Ridge Road over the weekend, and then as a worker waited for someone to fix the glass door someone robbed the employee.

But it didn't stop there.

“We had two years and this never happened; Now, in two days," said Genaro Olivares.

Olivares can't believe what's transpired in the last 48 hours at the store.

It started late Saturday night.

“First time they broke the door, they took the register and the money they found,” Olivares said.

Then, while Olivares was waiting for the glass repair company, he says a man confronted him in the back office of the store.

“They put a gun to my head and said, ‘Don't tell the police because next time I’ll kill you," Olivares said.

“Apparently the suspects made a comment about maybe taking the cash register the night before," said Sandy Springs Police Sgt. Ron Momon.

“They asked me for my money.  They (took) my wallet. They (took) my phone, social security, driver's license, green card,” Olivares said.

The store's owner asked Channel 2 Action News not to show her face. She’s fearful because Monday morning, police said someone came back to the store, and threw a brick through the front door yet again, as if to send a message.

“I’m asking the police to investigate,” she said. “I don’t feel safe.”

“If it is in turn the same people that broke into the business and stole the cash register, that would be kind of unusual,” said Momon.

Police are looking into whether the suspects may have come from an apartment complex across the street.