;”May I take your order?” turned into “Hello, 911?” for one business on campus Friday morning.

Manager Nancy Mortalba was taking orders at the Washington Avenue Southeast Burger King on Friday around 7:15 a.m. when a man who came inside to order food took off with the cash register drawer.

Mortalba said only two other people were working at the time, so she was taking orders from both the drive-thru and the inside counter at the same time.

“I was working in the drive-thru and I came over to the register and I asked him what he wanted,” she said.

She took his order and went over to the drive-thru to give a customer his order before coming back to finish the transaction.

“When I got done with the drive-thru, I came and got his money – two fives,” she said. “When I opened the register, he grabbed the register drawer.”

When she realized what he was doing she tried to grab his arm, but was unable to.

Another customer came in and saw what the man was doing.

“He dropped his bag and tried to run after the man,” Mortalba said. “He tried to chase him, but he went out the back door.”

Mortalba said one witness thought he saw the man run away, and another thought he saw him drive away.

Burger King has cameras monitoring the counter, Mortalba said, and Minneapolis police took the film from the incident.

This isn’t the first time this Burger King has been robbed.

According to Minneapolis police records, the store was also robbed in 1999 and 2005.

In 1999, an employee was hit by robbers and forced to open the business’s safe, but the 2005 robbery was similar to Friday’s.

According to the report, a suspect took money out of the cash register drawer when an employee opened it. The suspect ran out the front door with the loot.

Minneapolis police took tape from the security cameras after that robbery as well.

Minneapolis police Sgt. Jesse Garcia said no suspects were found in the 2005 robbery, and that Friday’s robbery is still under investigation.

Less than $200 was stolen in 2005 and less than $100 was taken Friday.

Car thefts persist near campus

Glass windows continue to break and property continues to be stolen from cars in Dinkytown.

A crime spree that included at least 28 damaged cars on Nov. 20 continued last weekend.

Seven more cars in Dinkytown had broken windows, according to Minneapolis police reports, with three owners reporting a loss from their cars.

All seven break-ins happened Thursday night or Friday morning, according to the reports.

Two other victims reported broken car windows and missing items on the West Bank, one on Nov. 28 and one Monday afternoon.

Officers were dispatched to one incident in Dinkytown where two possible suspects were spotted. No one was found.

Garcia said there haven’t been any breaks yet in the cases of the Dinkytown car thefts.

“Around the holiday season people have their cars loaded up to go home,” he said, “and robbers use that opportunity.”