Subway Employee Bound in Gunpoint Robbery, Police Say

Three armed men robbed a Verona Subway Monday night in a manner similar to several other incidents in the area, according to the Essex County Sheriff's Office.

Just before 11 p.m. Monday, three men pulled up in front of the Subway restaurant located at 45 Bloomfield Ave. in a while four-door sedan, Verona police said.

The car, which was possibly a Toyota Camry with damage to the passenger side, parked on an angle facing the storefront.

“Two of the males entered the store and immediately went behind the counter where they ordered the female employee down to the ground,” Verona Police said in a written statement. “They used white plastic zip ties and bound her hands behind her back and her feet.”

Two of the men ordered the employee to open the safe and demanded to know how to open the touch-screen cash register, police said.

The safe was left open by the owner due to a mechanical error and approximately $400 in cash was taken from the store, police said.

The three men then left the scene in the white sedan heading east toward Montclair.

On Thursday, May 16, the Essex County Sheriff's Office posted a for information that leads to the arrest of two men wanted in connection with 11 armed robberies of convenience stores, liquor stores and gas stations in towns in three North Jersey counties since Feb. 1.

In the store incidents, the robbers tied up the store clerks with zip-ties while cleaning out the cash register, Sheriff Armando Fontoura said.

Essex County Sheriff Spokesman Kevin Lynch could not say whether the Verona incident was linked to the previous robberies, but said it sounded like “the same M.O."

Verona Chief of Police Douglas Huber was not immediately available for comment.