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Armed robbery at Kinzie CVS but police are suspicious

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14-Dec-15 – An armed robbery at a CVS Pharmacy on West Kinzie Street last month may have been an inside job.

On November 4 at 3:50 a.m., more than three hours before the store was scheduled to open, an employee of the store was taking out the trash when, he says, a man put a chrome handgun to his head and asked, “Are there any more of you still inside?”

When the employee said there were, the robber told him to call them on their mobile phones and tell them to go behind the store, where the robber and the first employee were located.

Three employees showed up. The robber took their phones and told them to lead him to where the money was kept. The first employee walked the robber to the front of the store and into an office that had a safe. A second employee was told to put money into the robber’s backpack.

The employees were told to wait in the office while the first worker walked the robber to the rear door. The robber fled in an unknown direction.

Police arrived at 4:05 a.m. and searched the area but did not find the suspect.

Both robber and victim seen with same type of gloves

The employee who was first confronted by the robber showed police surveillance video that showed the robber wearing blue rubber gloves. One of the officers noted that eight minutes earlier in the video, the employee could be seen putting blue rubber gloves in his pocket.

The robber is described as a black male, about six feet tall, weighing 175-210 pounds. He wore a black hooded sweatshirt, black jeans, and a black bandana folded into a hat. The backpack was black, red, and gray.

Police did not release details at the time of the robbery and did not seek the public‘s help with finding the robber.

There have been four armed robberies of CVS pharmacies in Chicago since September – three far southwest of the Loop and one in the 3500 block of West Grand Avenue, northwest of the Loop, five days after the robbery in River North. In those incidents, details of which were shared with the public, two men entered the stores, flashed handguns, and stole cash, cigarettes, and bus passes.