Suspect carried gun
Police say an EZ Payday Loan location in Kansas City has been robbed twice within the last week.
The most recent robbery was Saturday, when the suspect used a semi-automatic black handgun to hold up the store.
Suspect description
Employees of EZ Payday loan report that a man fitting the same description robbed the store Saturday as well as earlier that week.
Witnesses say the man who stole about $2,000 from the business Saturday was 5 feet 8, wearing a long-sleeved blue button-up shirt and blue jeans. The man was black and wearing a yellow bandanna. The amount of cash taken earlier in the week is undisclosed.
More payday loan store robberies
While one man was plotting to rob two stores in Kansas, two men were robbing one store in South Carolina on Thursday.
The two men brandished a handgun and demanded money from a clerk. The two men fled with an undisclosed amount of cash.
Same story, different ending
Also Thursday, a robber entered a PayDay Loan store in Lake Forest in Orange County, California. The robber showed a gun and demanded money. At this point this story sounds like every other payday loan story, except the one where a couple brought their baby along. However, from here this story out of California heads in quite the different direction.
The store had a silent alarm system, and it had been tripped. The police arrived just as the robber was leaving, and rather than surrender to the inevitable, he decided to involve an innocent bystander.
The chase
The armed robber grabbed a 61-year-old male customer, forced him into his SUV at gunpoint and sped off with the man and the cash.
Police followed, and the robber proceeded to lead the police on a high-speed chase that at times reached speeds of 120 mph. Schools were put on lockdown, as police and suspects sped from on the freeway and around Laguna Hills and Laguna Niguel.
Under arrest
Of course, the chase had to end some time. When it did, the police freed the unharmed hostage and arrested the suspect. They recovered the cash, they took the gun and they continued with the business of keeping Orange County safe.
The moral of this story is that payday loan stores and any other frequently targeted establishment should definitely invest in one of those silent alarm systems. Payday loan stores often get targeted by robbers because they keep a large amount of cash on hand. Anything you can do to get police officers on the scene before the robber is off the scene will help deter future criminals from endangering employees and customers again.
They just keep coming, huh? Most payday loan stores are not equipped with modern security systems. Yet they carry a large amount of money in-store so I don’t see why more payday loan stores have not yet invested in a more sophisticated security system. It would be foolish and irresponsible not to. The technology is obviously available, ready to be put in use. Above all, the safety of employees is on the line. So this is absolutely something worth looking into.