By Nathan Duke
A women’s clothing outlet became the third store on Bell Boulevard to be robbed within the past two months after an armed man made off with thousands of dollars in cash last week.
A manager at the Mandee chain store, at 42-19 Bell Blvd. in Bayside, said the robber showed up at the store around 6 p.m. Dec. 29 and displayed a gun, taking off with $3,000 in cash.
“He said he was not going to hurt me as long as no one made a scene,” said the manager, who did not want to be named. “He looked desperate and kind of nervous. His voice was cracking and he told me he didn’t care that he was on camera, that he was doing it for his family.”
The store’s camera recorded the entire incident. No suspects have been arrested, police said.
The manager described the robber as a 6-foot-5-inch white man. An estimated four customers and five employees, including the manager, were in the store at the time of the incident.
Mandee closed for the rest of the night following the robbery, but reopened for regular hours in the days afterward.
The incident was the third of its kind to take place on the typically quiet shopping strip in the past two months.
On Oct. 26, an armed man who appeared to be in his late 20s entered Bell Boulevard’s Radio Shack store and took an estimated $400 worth of Blue Tooth headsets. The robber threatened the store’s manager not to call police.
No arrests have been made in that incident, but the robber was caught on camera by the store’s video surveillance.
Police said they were searching for a Hispanic male of an unknown age in the robbery.
In early November, a Rite Aid pharmacy chain store on Bell Boulevard near Northern Boulevard was burglarized in the middle of the night.
The thieves forced open the back door of the store and stole an estimated $20,000 from the safe, but no employees were in the building at the time of the incident.
A Rite Aid spokeswoman said video surveillance had been handed over to the police. No arrests have been made in the burglary.
To report any information on the robberies, contact the 111th Precinct at (718) 279-5200 or call the city’s Crime Stoppers hotline at 1(800) 577-TIPS.
Reach reporter Nathan Duke by e-mail at nduke@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-229-0300, Ext. 156.
