This afternoon a 71 year old shopkeeper was robbed at Gunpoint. Luciano Novelo was inside Novelo’s shop, the small grocery store he has owned for 25 years at number 12 Richard Sidewalk when two men entered. One of them was brandishing a sawed off shotgun and the other went after the money. We reached there shortly after and a still shaken Novelo told us how the robbery unfolded.
Luciano Novelo, Robbery Victim
“About 2:30 me and my son were in the shop here and suddenly two thieves came in. One of them had a long, maybe about a sawed off shotgun, and the one who had the gun stayed outside and the one that did the stealing he jumped over the counter, he grabbed $250 I had that I was about to send buy some stuff to the shop, and they went with that. When he found it he said this is what he wanted. The thing happened so fast, he went with it. And when he went outside, these people were on bicycles and one of them went ahead of his bicycle because I heard like a shotgun or something like that went off. I think that is what frightened them or I don’t know if they are the ones who shot. Some shooting went off.”
Keith Swift,
So a shot was fired?
Luciano Novelo,
“Yes, I don’t know who because that was outside.”
Keith Swift,
What did they do to your son?
Luciano Novelo,
“Well they just asked him to remain in the store and don’t move. I was advised some time ago by one of the officers from the Police Department to get a gun but I don’t believe in that so I just pray that nothing happens.”
Keith Swift,
Four robberies in two years, does it have you frightened, frustrated?
Luciano Novelo,
“Well we are frustrated because it is not the first time and with things being as they are, bad, when they rob you like this it throws you off. It throws you backwards.”
This is the fourth time Novelo has been robbed within the last two years. It happened most recently in August. No one was arrested and police are still investigating today’s robbery.
