Police search for man who robbed St. Anthony thrift store

Police say the robber took off in a pickup truck stolen in a carjacking in St. Paul.

January 25, 2022 at 3:34PM
Police are looking for this man in connection with a robbery of a St. Anthony thrift store at gunpoint Monday afternoon. (St. Anthony Police Department/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

A customer pulled a small black semi-automatic gun and pointed it at a clerk at a St. Anthony thrift store Monday.

The man then walked out of the Hidden Treasures Thrift Store on the 2900 block of Pentagon Drive at 12:50 p.m. with about $200 and a red duffel bag filled with miscellaneous clothing, and drove away in a pickup truck that had been stolen during a carjacking in St. Paul, said St. Anthony Police Chief Jon Mangseth.

Police later found the Chevy Colorado truck a few blocks away at 29th and Stinson Boulevard. On Tuesday morning police were still searching for the robber and asking for the public's help.

Witnesses described the robber as a white man about 6 feet 2 inches with a larger build. He was wearing what appeared to be black square eyeglasses, a black stocking cap, blue ski jacket and a gray scarf, the store's surveillance video shows.

The man appeared at the register and chatted with the woman running the till.

"I didn't think I would like it at first ... I lost the other one," the man can be heard telling the clerk as she rang up a few items and placed them in a red duffel bag. That's when he reached into his pocket and produced a gun, video posted to the St. Anthony Police Department's Facebook page shows.

"Staff indicated the suspect may have selected items to make it appear as though he wished to make a purchase," Mangseth said in an interview.

Mangseth warned people not to approach the man but to call 911 or Hennepin County dispatch at 952-258-5321 with tips to help law enforcement establish his identity and his whereabouts.

Information can also be phoned into Crime Stoppers of Minnesota at 800-222-8477. Callers can remain anonymous.

about the writer

Tim Harlow

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Tim Harlow covers traffic and transportation issues in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, and likes to get out of the office, even during rush hour. He also covers the suburbs in northern Hennepin and all of Anoka counties, plus breaking news and weather. 

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