Charlotte-Mecklenburg police are trying to determine if it was the same man who robbed two fast-food restaurants at gunpoint while wearing a gorilla mask.The first robbery happened at a Bojangles on East Woodlawn Road in south Charlotte just after 9 pm on Sunday. Workers reported two people held them up, including a man in a gorilla mask, stealing money out of the register and the safe.
About an hour later a man in a gorilla mask robbed the Church's Chicken on Wilkinson Boulevard and Old Steele Creek Road. Police say one of the men fired a shot into the ceiling, but no one was hurt. Then the robbers hurried away from the scene.
Investigators can't say for sure that the same men robbed both restaurants, but they believe that to be the case. Nonetheless, officers are warning people that it is illegal to wear a mask in public unless you are at an obvious Halloween event.
"You can't be just walking up the street wearing these masks. We may think you're a robbery suspect," said Officer Mandy Giannini of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department. "In order to avoid that, don't wear your masks on public streets and in businesses." Source: WSOC-TV