Hot dog shop owner charged in 2 bank heists
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Police walk Captain Barnes, the owner of Dormont Dogs, a hotdog shop, out of police headquarters on the North Side on Wednesday.
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A prominent chef and popular Dormont hot dog shop owner told detectives he robbed a pair of banks this week because he was deep in debt, Pittsburgh police said.
A group of customers and employees tackled 37-year-old Captain Barnes to the ground Wednesday morning after they spotted him running from a South Side Giant Eagle with thousands of dollars in cash spilling from a blue grocery bag.
Mr. Barnes, who owns Dormont Dogs on Glenmore Avenue, was charged with the heist at the Citizens Bank inside the grocery store as well as a Monday robbery at a PNC Bank in the 800 block of Brookline Boulevard, where police said he demanded $10,000 at gunpoint and told tellers he planted a bomb in the bank, drawing out the city's bomb squad.
Police said Mr. Barnes threatened tellers during Wednesday's hold-up, saying he knew where they lived and would hurt them if they did not comply with his demands for cash. He nearly made off with more than $4,000, which scattered into the street as he tried to flee. Customers and others in the area collected it and returned it to police.
"We all held him down," said Joseph W. McCray, a jitney driver who was among those to capture the robber outside the store in Wharton Square. "The first thing he said was he was doing this for his kids."
The crimes mystified the Dormont community, where Mr. Barnes and his wife, Rachel Dudley, have operated the specialty hot dog shop -- a local favorite -- since 2008.
To the chagrin of hungry passersby, robbery detectives shut the store down around lunchtime and discovered "a significant amount of cash" tucked away in a cooler, said Lt. Kevin Kraus of the city's major crimes division. Police believe it was money taken during Monday's hold-up.
First Published February 16, 2012 12:00 am
