'It's sad here in Downtown Crossing,' Store owner fearful, frustrated after armed robbery
BOSTON - May Volker has spent 30 years working on Winter Street in Downtown Crossing trying to stop merchandise from walking out the door at the two small stores her husband owns.
"Every single day most of our profit goes to shoplifters," she told WBZ-TV.
But Monday afternoon was different.
"I was thinking that it's only money," she said, "but how about my life? That's what was in my mind."
She's talking about what happened just before 4:30 Monday afternoon, as a lone lady played Keno in the "Lottery Store" and a man came in.
"He pointed a gun at the lady and said, 'You need to leave! Leave!'" she said.
With the customer gone the gunman quickly turned his attention to May.
"And then he said to me 'Give me all the money! Everything you have over there! Don't move! Don't follow me!'" she said.
She did anyway, after handing him roughly a thousand dollars from the lottery register, and watched him vanish into a nearby alley.
The robbery was captured on the store's surveillance camera.
"It's sad here in Downtown Crossing," said her husband Karl. "All the crime. I don't know who has the answers to prevent it."
Indeed, street crime is a regular visitor to this area and so are the police efforts to deter it. But regular customers at the Volkers' shops say there's a sad perception that thugs here often get away with such things.
"That person should be locked up for quite a long time," says one customer who didn't want to give his name. "Make him an example."
But May says Monday was a turning point for her.
"First time ever that a gun was pointed at me," the 57-year-old said.
And she's turning up the heat on her husband to sell the stores and bail from Downtown Crossing.
"You have responsibilities and you're trying to be successful," said her husband. "And then all of a sudden somebody comes in and puts a gun in your face and you start thinking about whether it's worth it."
Either way, his wife's memory of a frightening 20 seconds will stick around for a while.
"I didn't say anything, not a word," May told WBZ. "I was frozen."
Boston Police have not caught the pistol-toting bandit.
But Karl Volker said 99.9 percent of his customers are great and he considers many friends. To sell out, he said, would be letting a handful of bad guys win.