BY TANYA BRICKING
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Bob Mlinar put in a walk-up window at his Paddock Road Drive Thru as a security measure.
(Glenn Hartong photo)
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Bob Mlinar has learned a thing or two about safety in the 13 years he has owned Paddock Road Drive Thru.
His clerks work in pairs. They keep the doors locked. They pass purchases through a window instead of letting customers inside. When the Bond Hill shop closes at midnight, clerks walk to their cars together.
One of the harshest lessons for Mr. Mlinar has been that he can't have a safeguard for everything.
On July 31, two of his clerks were locking up. When they walked to the parking lot, two masked men were waiting. One shot one of the clerks in the arm. The clerk was Mr. Mlinar's son.
Police say the robbers who went after his store may be part of a group targeting businesses throughout the area. Since March, authorities have identified 26 robberies with similar characteristics, and the cases have been increasingly violent.
The robbers who hit Mr. Mlinar's store also are suspected of trying to rob a nearby bagel store a few hours later.
"I don't want to give them any credit for this, but, frankly, they have a lot of nerve," Mr. Mlinar said. "You would think after they got chased off, they would lay low for a little while. These guys obviously are not amateurs."
Cincinnati Police Detective Richard Wullenweber is coordinating a task force to end the series of robberies.
He began making connections with cases in May when he saw a pattern of methods of operation and suspect descriptions. He's alarmed the robberies are becoming more violent. What began as threats has escalated to clerks being pistol-whipped and another being shot.
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"People have been beaten. One guy required eight staples in the head," he said. "Anybody involved is usually armed."
In most cases, the robbers case a business and figure out who is in charge. As the business opens or closes, the gunmen go after the store manager and ask for money from the safe. When the suspects flee, they often have a getaway car waiting. And the suspects have been difficult to identify.
Most victims have described the suspects as black men in their 20s who are 5-foot-8 to 5-foot-10 and about 160 pounds. In most cases, they wear black clothes and sport gloves or surgical gloves. They cover their faces with anything from bandanas to women's stockings. They carry silver-colored handguns.
The descriptions have varied, and police think there may be up to six people working as a group, Springdale Detective Elliott Cumbow said.
His most brutal case involved a Burger King manager in Springdale. Scott Brown, 20, of Loveland had just locked up the restaurant early June 3 when he walked toward his car. Two men ran out from behind a trash bin and demanded he give them money. He struggled with them -- even after he let them in the store -- and they pistol-whipped him so badly he required 34 stitches and had three broken bones in his right cheek.
He returned to work the next day.
"I've accepted it and tried to put it behind me," he said. "I'm not going to let two guys make me live in fear for the rest of my life." The latest robbery was Sunday at Hooter's in Springdale. It was at 2:06 a.m., just after closing, and three suspects called the manager by name and demanded money. Springdale police are working on composite drawings of the suspects.
The only police drawing so faris of a suspect in a June 18 kidnapping of a man at the Shell Food Mart in Paddock Hills.
Police say the victim was forced back into his car, taken to his employer -- Just For Feet in Springdale -- and asked to let the suspects inside to rob it. He couldn't get in, and the suspects released the victim in Norwood after taking jewelry and a cellular phone.
The robberies have happened in so many jurisdictions that police are just beginning to make more connections.
Detective Wullenweber asks that business owners call him with any tips -- even if they just see something odd in the parking lot or want to give a license plate number for a car. "I'd rather look into it and have it be nothing than to pass up a good lead," he said. Anyone with information is asked to call Detective Wullenweber at 357-7531 or Crime Stoppers at 352-3040. Tips to Crime Stoppers remain anonymous, and callers can earn rewards for information that leads to arrests.
