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Last week came word: The Old Monk and The Dallasite had been robbed at gunpoint. Dallas police did not think the two were related — the former was violently robbed by three men who came in through the back door after hours; the latter, by a lone gunman who, moments earlier, had been drinking at the bar. Then, in the comments, someone mentioned that two nights before Christmas, several armed suspects held up the Humperdink’s on Greenville, assaulting at least one man and getting away with thousands.
Then, early this morning, four armed men stormed the Villa Club on North Hall, getting away, once more, with thousands. Dallas police say they have arrested one man connected to the crime, but have yet to release his name — says Senior Corporal Kevin Janse, “We still have to show line-ups,” and police don’t want to show their hand too soon.
As Deputy Chief Michael Genovesi told The News today, “These guys are armed, and they have a plan. It’s a dangerous situation.” Janse confirms: DPD thinks the three robberies may well be related. He also tells Unfair Park that the department believes “there is the possibility” that the suspects have targeted “more than just these three [bars].” That jibes with an e-mail we received today from the GM of a McKinney Avenue bar, who says several other clubs’ general managers are swapping stories of their own run-ins with the likely suspects in recent days.
A few days ago, says the missive, three men who fit the description were “freaking out” patrons at a popular bar not far from the Katy Trail. Later that night, they were spotted on the roof, disabling a security camera. And last Wednesday, they were seen “sneaking around” a N. Henderson bar around 3:15 in the morning. The GM says they were captured on the bar’s security camera.
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Janse says detectives will “look at all the restaurant and nightclub and bar robberies in the recent past and see if there’s any resemblance. Hopefully, we’ll tie them together. But with us arresting one of them today, we’re hoping these offenses will stop and we’ll be able to get the rest of the suspects in custody soon.”
