'Desperate For Money': Police Say Man Showed Meat Cleaver During Multiple Robberies
CANTON (CBS) -- Police said the man who has used a meat cleaver to rob three businesses within 1,000 feet of each other must be "desperate for money."
It's "probably related to drugs. And, you know, he'll do anything to get money to get his fix," said Canton Police Chief Kenneth Berkowitz.
Police are still searching for the man who robbed the Canton Wash n Fold last Tuesday, then Kelly's Place and the Seasons gas station convenience store on Sunday.
Alyssa Burke normally spends her time folding clothes at the Canton Wash n Fold, but when the robber came in, she was fighting back panic.
"I was shaking like crazy," she told WBZ-TV. "He's like, where's your register? And he had his arm behind his back. He had the meat cleaver in his hand."
Burke said she quickly led him to the register. "He just came, took out the money himself. He didn't even put the money in a bag. He just walked out."
According to police, the man was busy early Sunday morning as well.
Surveillance video shows the man using the meat cleaver to smash through the front window of Kelly's Place on Washington Street.
"He tried to jimmy it open and he couldn't get it open. So, he broke the register trying to get it open," said Kelly Cusack of Kelly's Place.
But he didn't succeed.
Around the same time, Stoughton Police said he brandished the meat cleaver while demanding money from a clerk at the Seasons gas station convenience store on Sharon Street.
He got away each time on an electric bike.
The suspect as a thin, white man, about 5′ 10″ to 6′ tall, and dressed in all black including a mask and gloves.
Police said they do have a few leads but anyone with information is asked to call them.
