Armed man robs doughnut shop today

• E-mail story
• Comments
• iPod friendly

By Bobbi Mlynar (Contact)

Originally published 02:14 p.m., July 3, 2008
Updated 02:14 p.m., July 3, 2008

Willards Daylight Donuts was robbed this morning. If you have information call Crime Stoppers, 342-2273.

Photo by Bobbi Mlynar

Willards Daylight Donuts was robbed this morning. If you have information call Crime Stoppers, 342-2273.

Police are looking for a tall, slender white man suspected of robbing the Willard’s Daylight Donuts store, 902 W. Sixth Ave., this morning at approximately 6 a.m.

Police Chief Gary Smith said that witnesses — a clerk and a customer — described the man as being about 6 feet tall and possibly having blond hair.

“We know there was some sort of head gear,” Smith said, adding that the witnesses were not sure whether he was wearing a cap or some other type of head covering.

“We’re pretty sure it’s a white male,” he said. “We have only the witness accounts of this and obviously (the man) had a gun. ... It was a large handgun, dark in color.”

The witnesses were not able to provide a clothing description.

The alleged robber disabled the telephone and forced the witnesses to lie down on the floor.

The incident happened about 6 a.m. today, though it was not reported to Emporia police until 6:22 a.m. Neither witness had a cellular phone to call police after the man left, and they apparently went to the street to flag down a passerby in a truck. Smith said they drove to the Daylight Donuts store at 1028 Commercial St. to call police.

Though the description of the alleged robber is sketchy, Smith said he may have left some evidence at the store.

“We do believe we have some forensic evidence at the scene that the investigators are working on,” he said.

The man, who took a currently undetermined amount of cash, left the store on foot. Smith said it is not known whether an accomplice was waiting in a car nearby, or whether the man was alone.

Emporia police officers D.J. Dragonis, Ray Mattias, and Jim Pritchard, and Sgt. Mark Summey responded to the initial call, and were joined at the scene by Detective Sgts. Mark Schondelmaier and Mark Senn, who are investigating the case.

Smith asked that anyone who may have seen a man matching that description entering or leaving the area to call police, 343-4220, or Lyon County Crimestoppers, 342-2273.

This morning’s robbery was the second in less than two years at the doughnut shop.

In that robbery, on Sept. 17, 2006, a man entered the store about 6:30 a.m. and demanded cash. He produced a weapon and ran east with the money.