Police are searching for a group of robbers in hooded sweatshirts who held up a Paterson, New Jersey, bodega last month, one of them wielding a machete and another a gun.
Police released surveillance video Monday of the May 26th robbery at Nickymania bodega on Fourth Avenue. It shows the men barge into the store and demand cash from the store employees.
One robber is seen pointing a gun in the store clerk's face. Another waves a machete.
"I don't know what happened. He comes in and says 'Give me everything,'" store clerk, Vezturo Guzman recounted. "He put a gun to my head and grabbed me here. 'Give me the money.'"
Guzman handed the robbers about $40 he had in his pockets. The robbers are then seen on surveillance video leaving the store carrying a black safe.
Their theft turned out not to be fruitful, though. The safe was empty and happened to be on sale inside the store.
Ariel Mancheno, who lives across the street, saw the men carrying the safe out of the bodega. He told NBC 4 New York that he hopped in his car with one of the store employees and chased the robbers, but they ultimately got away.
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"I wouldn't want this to happen to anybody. This is my neighborhood and I think we should always have a commitment to protect our neighborhood," Mancheno said.
The robbers got away in a dark-colored, older-model Audi station wagon. Paterson police are asking anyone with information to come forward.
