‘I’ll give it back!’ — Trapped intruder puts $$ back, begs floral shop owner to let him go STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — The president of a Bulls Head business says she is frightened after a worker had a face-to-face encounter with an intruder in the second burglary at the shop this summer.
Dana Montana of Grapevine and Florist on Richmond Avenue said she had just left the store at around 7 p.m. on Monday when an unidentified man entered the shop.
Montana’s manger was still in the store, however, and saw the man on the security cameras.
A video shared with the Advance/SILive.com shows a man wearing a gray hoodie, gloves and a face covering with an American flag on it taking money from the cash register.
The video shows the man rummaging through the register and putting what looks like cash in his pocket.
Not knowing if the intruder was armed, the manager “walks slowly and closes the door” that separated him from the suspect, Montana said.
This closed off the intruder’s exit, trapping him in the shop.
Shortly after, a brief interaction between the manager, who was holding the door and could not call 911, and the masked man begins, Montana said.
“I’ll give it back. I’ll put it back,” the man can be heard saying in the video, as he pleads with the manager to let him leave.
“Look… right here,” the man continues, showing some items to the manager through the door and placing them on the counter.
The manager asked the man to take off his hoodie to make sure he was not carrying any firearm or knife, Montana said.
The man proceeds to take his hoodie off in the video.
“Let me go. You’ll let me go?” the man asks. “I got nothing. Man…look it’s my singles to eat. It’s just singles… come on man. I left everything!"The man then grows frustrated and pushes the money and a plexiglass display near the register onto the floor.Eventually, the manager opened the door and the man left the business.Police confirmed they responded to a 911 call for a burglary at the florist after an unknown individual entered the location and removed $350 from the cash register, an NYPD spokeswoman said.The suspect fled in an unknown direction and is described as a white male, approximately 40 years old, standing 5 feet, 10 inches, weighing about 180 pounds, who is partially balding with black hair, police said.He was last seen wearing blue jeans and a gray jacket, according to police. ‘WE ARE FRIGHTENED’ It wasn’t the first time Grapevine and Florist was burglarized.On June 18, at around 10 p.m., a suspected entered the store through a locked fence, police said.The man removed $242 from an unlocked cash register, according to police.No arrests were made in connection to that incident, police said.“I don’t care about the $500, $600 that he took. In a sense, okay, that’s a lot. But we work late at night, and we’re scared here. We’re going to start going into the Christmas season. We’re frightened,” Montana […]