Bar owners "doing things they haven't done before" after rash of armed robberies
RACINE (WITI) -- 13 and counting! An ongoing string of armed robberies involving small businesses in Racine has police scrambling to figure out who's responsible.
The more a dozen armed robberies have been reported within just the past six weeks. Nearly half of them involve neighborhood bars.
"I was upstairs in my recliner watching Channel 6," Dan Dearborn said.
Dearborn's Sunday morning was about to turn into something out of an episode of "Cops."
"I know what a gunshot is, and I heard it. I jumped out of my chair and I ran to the window, looked out, and people were running out onto the sidewalk screaming," Dearborn said.
Those people were running out of Rojo's Pub after a gunshot was fired into the ceiling of the bar, beneath Dearborn's apartment.
"In this neighborhood, these things are becoming common," Dearborn said.
Racine Police Sgt. Jessie Metoyer says more than frustrating for police -- these incidents are concerning.
"We've had at least six robberies to bars in a short period of time," Metoyer said.
Five of them involve north side establishments. Three have occurred at Roger's Place, and one at Rhino's.
All have involved a suspect or suspects who have primarily relied on the register and money sitting on the bar.
"To this point, no one's been injured, but shots have been fired by the suspect in two of the incidents. We do not want that to escalate," Metoyer said.
Rojo's owner tells FOX6 News he's doing some escalating of his own.
"Right away on Sunday, we already started putting a new security system in here. We got four new cameras up here -- high-definition. I got two more going outside and some more lighting outside. We're doing things that we just haven't done before," Joseph Velasak said.
Racine police say the suspect description and modus operandi are similar in the armed robberies involving bars -- but police do not know whether any of these crimes are connected.
Residents who live in the north side neighborhood where the robberies have occurred who have their own surveillance systems are being asked to check them for any images that could help police.