WILKES-BARRE — Some business owners in the Wilkes-Barre area say they feel uneasy after a rash of armed robberies in the past week.
Instead of focusing on holiday shoppers, workers tell us they’re busy upgrading their security systems. Cameras just went up inside one nail salon in Hanover Township after a man walked in with a gun last week.
“I go home, I’m so scared after that I close earlier.”
This woman who only wants to be identified as Jessica says she was working alone inside Forever Nails in Hanover Township on Thursday when a man walked in covering his face and holding a gun.
“He asked me for money. I said ‘I have nothing.’”
Jessica says the man didn’t get any cash. Now, her boss has just installed new surveillance cameras in the nail salon.
On the same afternoon, Hanover Township police say a masked man was caught on camera after he robbed employees at gunpoint inside Claire’s bar just a few miles away from the nail salon.
On Friday night, a man held up Adult World on Route 11 in nearby Larksville.
Surveillance video shows the crook again wearing a mask and clearly holding a handgun.
On Christmas Eve, police say a masked man robbed tellers at gunpoint and dropped hundreds of dollars as he ran from FNCB on Wyoming Avenue in Kingston.
Newswatch 16 was there when a neighbor walked up to the bank after he found $450 that had just been stolen.
Authorities will only say that the physical description of the robber in each case is similar and detectives are looking into possible connections among some or all of the hold ups.
John Morris works in the west end plaza in Hanover Township a few doors away from the nail salon that was targeted. He and other business owners say they’re wondering if the crimes were committed by the same man and they hope police can track down the crook or crooks soon.
“We’re all a little nervous but life goes on. If we see somebody strange that we’ve never seen before, we might lock the door,” Morris said.
Police tell us no one was hurt in any of these hold ups.
