A man took $90 and left a store employee bound with a jump rope and an electrical cord at a gift store on the 1200 block of Chicago Avenue Friday, said Deputy Chief Joseph Bellino of Evanston Police Department.
The employee told EPD a man entered Possibilities, 1235 Chicago Ave., at about noon and waited for the other customers to leave, Bellino said. He then walked around a display to the clerk at the register and implied that he had a gun, he said. No gun was seen by the employee during the incident.
The woman was the only employee working at the store Friday during the incident, Bellino said. Employees at nearby stores said the employee on duty during the incident was the store owner.
The woman gave the robber $90 from the cash register, Bellino said. He pushed the woman into a bathroom in the back of the store, where she was tied up and gagged, he said. The robber then left the store, he said.
After loosening the rope, the woman called EPD from a nearby business, Bellino said. The clerk was not injured, he said.
The woman described the robber as a black man between 25- and 30-years-old. He had crooked teeth, was clean shaven and wore a gold hoop in his left ear, Bellino said. He was wearing a navy windbreaker, a dark polo shirt, blue jeans, white tennis shoes and a gray or blue knit cap with a bill.
Police are still searching for witnesses, Bellino said. He did not know whether there was a security camera.
Possibilities was not open on Sunday. The Daily was unable to contact the store’s owner Sunday.
-Laura Olson
