Archived NJ store robbed on Black Friday

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buliSBI

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UNION TOWNSHIP — Two armed robbers made off with Black Friday cash from a Target store after they forced their way into the cash room, tied up three employees and walked out before the rest of the staff realized what happened, police said.

The 40-minute robbery occurred shortly after the day’s sales bonanza had ended and a “full night crew” restocked shelves at the Springfield Avenue store, Union Township Police Lt. Robert Perez said.

The masked suspects had been hiding in the store as they waited for it to close, and they made their move around 11 p.m. by forcing an employee into the cash room at gunpoint, Perez said.

“They had been in the store for quite some time,” Perez said of the suspects.

They then waited there for cash register receipts to be wheeled in, grabbing two other employees as they walked in with cash, Perez said.

The bandits tied up all three workers in the cash room and took an undisclosed amount of cash, Perez said. The suspects then walked out of the store before any of the other workers realized what just occurred, Perez said.

It wasn’t until after the bound employees freed themselves from the cash room that the robbery was reported, Perez said.

Authorities are searching for the suspects, but were not able to immediately provide full descriptions for them. Perez said they both wore masks and carried at least one handgun.

The Target robbery was one of two armed hold-ups in Union Township this weekend that involved store employees being bound. A similar robbery occurred Saturday night at the Harbor Freight Tools store on Route 22.

In that robbery, which police do not believe is related to the Target heist, four armed men entered the store after it closed and tied up the five employees who were inside. They fled with an undisclosed amount of cash.

No one was hurt in either robbery, Perez said.

Anyone with information on the Target robbery should contact Union Township police detective Walter Stinner at (908) 851-5039. Anyone with information on the Harbor Frieght robbery can call Union Township police at (908) 851-5000.
 
Oh, God. :-(. I cannot imagine. Being held up at a register is one thing (been there) but this is unreal. :-(
 
They must have waited for the nightly drop off.... Sounds like they planned it well.

Glad no one was hurt
 
very sad thing. i am glad no one was hurt. sounds like an inside job. they knew when to hit that store.
 
They had probably observed a previous drop off to know the procedure. And hiding in a store after closing would be incredibly easy. Ugh, ugh, ugh.
 
i can think of quite a few places near the front end & not be seen by anyone, at my store. it highly suggested to let your etl/lod or gstl/gsa know about this robbery & what is best practice is. look for the book with alert one phone number on front cover.
 
Hopefully no one will get termed because they DID follow protocol by complying & attempting to note details (even tho they were masked). Glad no one was hurt.
 
Scary. That's the second after-hours Target robbery I've heard of...there was another one near-ish my store last month. People stopped complaining so much about the ETL locking the doors promptly at 10pm and not opening them till everyone was ready to leave.
 
so, ok at my store we do a thorough guest check about 5 minutes til closing, and the LOD also locks all the front doors after the last guest is accounted for. Apparently neither procedure was followed? Did they just walk out the front door after hours? Anyway that sucks. Usually if we notice some suspicious activity our AP is there til right before closing, but seeing as how it was black friday everyone was prob just looking to go home and in a rush to finish up, I know we were at my store.
 
I walked my areas to make sure. A few other tm's are good at doing it too. It's team effort to make the store is safe when we closed down.
 
I can't imagine that happening at my store. We check every work center prior to locking the doors. And we'd notice if the GSA and LOD were missing after calling for 239. Who was the third TM who had access to the CO? Strange.
 
When I was still up front, our closing LOD would call out over the walkie for TMs to check their areas for lingering guests & send them up front. We'd make a last call saying that the "registers are closing". That usually did it for the folks who wanted to buy anything. I also sent cashiers into the restrooms to check for stowaways.
The only way they could blend in is if they put on a red shirt & started pushing freight.
 
Something similar happened at a local Chili's where I live about a month ago no it wasn't NJ but it was a Friday evening and the place had just closed they had timed just right no customers in the building they tied the employees in the bathrooms and robbed the place which made me think definitely a inside job.
 
The story about Aurora, Colorado.....this was the same city where there was that shoot out on the opening night of the Batman Movie. There were two Target team Members that had moved to Colorado from Ohio......one of the Team Members was killed. I'm wondering if these are the same Aorora, Colorado stores.

About now, I'd be petrified to be there.
 
I found another article that said they were hiding out in the restroom for hours waiting for close. How often do you check the restrooms when closing? We only do if there's an extra car in the lot.
 
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