Starbucks robber handcuffs employee
Safe's contents and car taken by armed man; nearby credit union also reports robbery

By Aldrich M. Tan

The Lawrence Police Department was searching Friday afternoon for an armed suspect in the early morning robbery of a Lawrence Starbucks coffeehouse.

At 5:15 a.m. Friday, police said, a man approached a Starbucks employee as she opened the store at 10800 Pendleton Pike.

The man held a semiautomatic handgun on the employee and forced her to open the store's safe, said Lawrence Police Chief Jack Bailey.

"He handcuffed the woman to a gas meter behind the store and stole her car," Bailey said.

A drive-through customer heard the woman's cries for help and alerted police, Bailey said.

Police arrived on the scene at 5:30 a.m. and freed the woman.

"We were able to cut the handcuffs," Bailey said.

Police also retrieved the woman's vehicle in the rear parking lot of a nearby Cardinal Fitness center, Bailey said.

The Starbucks store remained closed throughout the morning and early afternoon. Starbucks spokeswoman Kelly Hand said she did not know when the store would reopen.

"Right now, we're working with the Lawrence Police Department," said Hand, regional marketing specialist for Starbucks.

The robber is at large, Bailey said. Witnesses described him as 6 feet tall and thinly built. He was wearing black clothing, including a mask, gloves and scarf.

The Starbucks robbery was one of two Friday in Lawrence. Police were investigating one that occurred about 8 a.m. at the nearby Forum Credit Union at 5760 Sunnyside Road. The credit union is a few blocks from the Starbucks store.

Authorities said the suspect in that incident, a heavyset, 6-foot-tall man armed with a handgun, took money from a vault after tying up bank customers and employees.

Anyone with information about either robbery should contact the Lawrence Police Department at (317) 545-7575.

Call Star reporter Aldrich M. Tan at (317) 444-6309.