An armed man hiding in the bushes behind Taco Bell robbed a restaurant employee as she was leaving work early Sunday morning.
The theft marks the fifth time the store has been robbed in a little more than a year.
Mayra Soriano had just locked up the restaurant at about 2:30 a.m. when a man jumped out of the bushes by her car, showed a gun and robbed her of about $100 before driving away in what appeared to be a black Honda Civic, Prince George’s County Police said.
Soriano said she was attacked just minutes after her co-workers left to go home and that she did not get a good look at the man who robbed her.
Taco Bell manager Jennifer Miller said company policy is for all employees to leave at the same time when closing the store, but she had no explanation as to why Soriano was alone. She said she had no plans to take any precautions in the future.
In May 2005, multiple suspects wielding guns entered Taco Bell and robbed several employees of some cash. In November, a masked gunman entered through a door that a delivery man left open and robbed the store of about $1,200. Between those two incidents, a store manager was robbed twice in the parking lot while on his way to deposit the cash from the store.
Miller said she has been told by police that these type of robberies are not isolated to Taco Bell, but the high frequency of the recent incidents may indicate otherwise.
Police would not say if the events were related and did not know why Taco Bell appears to be such a popular target.
Miller said the robberies have not impacted her ability to hire workers, and she has not had any of her employees quit as a result.
“They get scared a little bit,” Miller said of her employees. “But some of them are very seasoned to it, unfortunately.”
County police say they will continue to investigate the crime, but it is very difficult to locate a suspect with the lack of description.
Contact reporter Owen Praskievicz at praskieviczdbk@gmail.com.
