Crime Stoppers: Frightening stick-up

CHARLOTTE, NC (WBTV) - A frightening stick-up happened at a northeast Charlotte video game parlor.

Surveillance video from inside Buster's Arcade on Highway 29 shows patrons passing time playing video poker and other games of chance.

Suddenly, two men burst in and all hands reach for the sky.

One crook has a silver handgun, the other stands in the doorway with an assault rifle- a short barreled  AR-15 with a laser sight, according to police.

"It's a very big gun in a small place," observed CMPD Detective Brandon Miller.

One crook headed to the back office, while the assault rifleman issued threats.

"He told them if they got up or tried anything to move, he was going to shoot them," Miller added.

As one crook approached the office, one unlucky customer turned around with cash in his hand. He freezes.

"He sees the suspect and decides, 'I want no parts of it,' so he just freezes and holds whatever money he has out for the suspect," Miller said.

Inside the office, the clerk was slowly forking over the cash, so the impatient gunman stuck his gun right into the customer's neck and forced him back to the window.

"We're thinking at this point the clerk wasn't moving fast enough so he grabs this guy and uses him as hostage to hurry up the clerk," Miller said.

And it worked.  The clerk doled out $2,700 to the bad guys.

Nine days later, the same duo was seen robbing the A-2-Z Cash and Carry Wholesale, which is not a video game parlor and is hard to find at the end of a west Charlotte street.  They only got $100 bucks there.

"Right now we haven't seen them in any other robberies, but we have to get them off the street before we see them again," Miller said.

In both robberies, they used a handgun and an assault rifle, plus, the car they drove was the same. It's a silver, older model, 4-door Impala with some damage to the driver's side.

If you know the car, or the men and want to earn some reward money, call Crime Stoppers at 704-334-1600 and you can remain anonymous.

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