December 11, 2007
By RAELYNN RICARTE
News staff writer

An armed robber surprised three employees closing up shop at Charburger Restaurant in Hood River on Sunday night.

The male suspect slipped unseen through an unlocked back door and into the kitchen about 8:40 p.m. He was wearing a black face mask, hooded sweatshirt and both dark pants and shoes.

According to reports, the chef, who had not heard the man enter, turned around and was looking into the barrel of a gun. The robber then began shouting for him to lie on the floor, an order the employee immediately complied with.

Two other workers and two children at the scene were also directed by the gunman to get down on the floor. One of the employees was about five months pregnant and was the mother of the children, ages 9 and 11, who had joined her birthday celebration.

“I feel bad that everyone had to go through such a traumatic incident.” said Ken Bausch, owner of the business. He was not present when the robbery took place.

He said the pregnant victim experienced contractions from the stress of the incident and, after the robber left, was taken to Providence Hood River Memorial Hospital. She recovered without going into labor, according to Bausch. He said none of his staffers was physically injured during the 10-minute ordeal.

Hood River County Sheriff Detective Gerry Tiffany said the gunman took the wallets and purses of all three employees. He also collected their cell phones and smashed the business telephone against the wall before removing a small amount of cash from the till.

Bausch said the robber became very angry after only finding about $200 in the cash register. He had netted small amounts of money from each of the robbery victims.

“It seems like he went through a lot of trouble for a little bit of cash,” said Bausch.

“I think what was scariest for everyone was that the man, who was very agitated, had the hammer back on his gun and was waving it around — so it wouldn’t have taken much for it to go off.”

Bausch said the robber slipped out the back door and the employees did not see where he went, nor did they hear a car engine starting up nearby. One of the workers ran to an apartment above the restaurant and called for help.

Tiffany said deputies arrived at the scene almost immediately after the robbery was reported. He said law enforcement officials were unable to locate any suspicious person in the vicinity of the restaurant.

“We don’t know if it was someone who stopped off the freeway to get a few extra dollars or a local person,” said Tiffany.

Because the man’s face and head were covered, the employees were able to provide only a limited physical description of the robber. He is reported to have brown eyes and is estimated to be about 5 feet 7 inches tall and weigh about 170 pounds.

Tiffany is asking local residents or visitors to the area who noticed anything suspicious happening around Charburger on Dec. 9 to call 387-6846.

Meanwhile, Bausch said the three employees are now worried about becoming the victims of identity theft and/or burglary. The robber got away with driver’s licenses that list the home address of each worker.

“We’ve been here for almost 40 years and we’ve been robbed before but never at gunpoint. This was pretty scary,” he said.

“It is definitely a motivating factor to take some extra security precautions.”