MOLINE, Illinois-- Police are still looking for the man who robbed an Avenue of the Cities phone store at gunpoint Monday, Nov. 19.
The manager of the Mobile to Mobile Mehdi Mjuinder says the robber told his employee to get new cell phones from the back of the store and cash from the register.
"He also took the store's phone so we couldn't call the 911," he says.
Mjuinder says the employee wasn't feeling well after the frightening confrontation and spent some time at a hospital.
Now, area businesses are divided over how crime reflects on the area.
"I personally believe that things like that don't happen very often," says Miguel Rosas, the owner of New Style Hair Academy. "So I'm not afraid that it's going to happen again."
Rosas says he was out grabbing dinner when he saw the police cars just down the street from his business.
"I've heard a couple couple different students mention that they may feel a little unsafe knowing something like that happened in the area," he says.
Rosas says he's not too worried about being a target for theft, joking that the only thing a thief could get are hair clippers.
But for a local consignment shop owner, news of the armed robbery was difficult to hear.
"It's my fear everyday of being robbed," says Lisa Broer, owner of Selective Seconds. "What the Avenue is becoming is very scary."
Broer says she's had her share of problems with shoplifters. She has security tags that set-off a metal detector when leaving the store.
"To have that in the back of your head, knowing someone could walk out and have no guilt about it, it bothers me," she says.
Now, Broer is thinking about putting her more expensive items out of reach behind the counter.
Even Rosas says he may have to start looking over his shoulder when leaving his barbershop at the end of the day.
Video from the night of the armed robbery courtesy RyCa T.V.
