Wilmette police are investigating an Aug. 7 armed robbery at a Lake Avenue sandwich shop, in which the perpetrator allegedly got away with almost $3,000.
According to police, a night manager at the Jimmy John’s Gourmet Sandwich Shop, 3520 Lake Ave. in west Wilmette, called 911 shortly before 10 p.m., saying the store had just been robbed.
She told officers that a man came into the store, displayed a weapon and struck her before forcing her to open the store’s safe, Chief Brian King said in an email. The man left with about $2,900 in cash, he said. King and initial reports did not say what type of weapon the suspect appeared to be carrying.
In an email King sent to the Wilmette-Kenilworth Chamber of Commerce for distribution to village businesses, King said the robber got into the store through an unlocked back door.
The suspect was described as a heavyset man of unknown race, standing about 6-foot-2 to 6-foot-4 and wearing a black hoodie, police said.
In King’s email to the chamber, he said: “This is an excellent time to review security measures with your employees and, as always, please do not hesitate to call the police if you observe suspicious persons or vehicles near your businesses.”
This is not the first time the sandwich shop has been robbed. In April 2013, a Chicago man came into the shop just after 9 p.m. as three employees were closing up. Police said the man brandished a pistol and ordered them to the back of the restaurant. When the employees couldn’t open the store safe for him, he grabbed $1,029 from the cash registers and fled.
In July of that year, after an investigation, police arrested a Chicago man and charged him with armed robbery.
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