Robbers earn extra cash by taking orders at Starbucks
About 5 a.m., the woman, believed to be about 24 years old, walked up to an employee who was setting up tables outside the Starbucks on U.S. Highway 2 and asked if she could use the restroom.
While she was in the restroom, a man of about the same age entered the store, where three employees were on duty, police said.
The pair walked behind the counter, pulled out guns and demanded the store manager open the safe. They took an undisclosed amount of money, according to Jan O’Neil, Monroe police administrative commander.
The pair then locked the store’s front doors, signaling customers to go to the drive-up window, she said. The man and woman then had one of the employees help them make drinks as they took orders and served customers at the window.
In all, 18 to 25 cars pulled up while the robbers worked. There was no indication customers thought anything was amiss, O’Neil said.
But “we heard that he makes a crummy cup of coffee,” she said of the male robber.
Police said they arrested two suspects in the robbery last night, after following them as they drove a white Nissan from an undisclosed location in the Lake Stevens area to a Lake Stevens Chevron, where they stopped to get gas. Two handguns were recovered and a witness to the robbery identified them as the suspects, according to a police statement.
They were being held at the Snohomish County jail on investigation of first-degree robbery and first-degree kidnapping for allegedly ordering the employees into a back room before fleeing, police said.
Nobody was injured during the robbery. The store closed briefly while police investigated, but reopened later yesterday, a Starbucks spokeswoman said.
Janet Burkitt can be reached at 206-515-5689 or jburkitt@seattletimes.com.