On the night of Jan. 5, business was chugging along like it would on any other night at Cool Hand Luke’s Steak House, but a cell phone message changed that business-as-usual hum into a particularly harrowing night for one manager, who suddenly found herself the unwilling subject of an alleged robbery at work.
According to owner Scott Van Pelt, a couple in their mid-20s to mid-30s entered the restaurant at about 9:30 p.m. and ordered dinner. After they finished their meal, the man motioned the waiter to their table and asked for management. When the manager arrived, the couple told her to sit down and then showed her a typed message on a cell phone indicating they were robbing the place, Van Pelt said.
A press release from the Santa Maria Police Department said the couple took the manager into the office, forced her to open the safe, and took an undisclosed amount of cash.
The restaurant was about half full of customers that night. Van Pelt said surveillance footage shows the suspects and the manager walking through the kitchen, past the staff, and into the office. He called the move “ballsy.”
“They just nonchalantly talked to my employees and looked them in the eye,” he said.
After allegedly grabbing the cash, the couple left the restaurant through the back door and walked past the entrance, where the doors were already locked. As the wait staff looked out the front door, the two suspects waved and kept walking, Van Pelt said, adding that most of the staff wasn’t aware of the alleged stickup and thought the couple was walking out on their bill.
When some employees gave chase, the two suspects allegedly hurried toward a getaway car that was already running with someone in the driver’s seat, Van Pelt said. He described the car as a late-model dark gray or black Nissan SUV, which headed north on Highway 101.
Van Pelt isn’t sure if a weapon was involved, but said his employees did a good job handling the situation.
Police describe the couple as both being Hispanic—the male in his mid-30s, about 5-foot-5 with a medium build; the female in her mid-20s, slightly taller with short brown hair. Police are asking anyone with information to call the station at 928-3781, Ext. 297.
This article appears in Jan 15-22, 2015.