After being robbed at gunpoint, a Como area business owner might close her store, she said.

An unidentified suspect wielding a weapon that appeared to be a semi-automatic pistol robbed Captain’s Lunchbox at approximately 10:20 a.m. Tuesday, according to the police report.

The store is located at 1517 Como Ave. SE.

Storeowner Stana Ilias said she was
working alone Tuesday morning, as she does every day, when a man entered her store and asked how much a soda cost.

She told him the price and rang it up on the register as he pulled a soda out of the refrigerator.

“I open register and he showed me gun and he said give me your money,” she said.

Ilias put all the money in the register in a white plastic bag and gave it to the man. He then told her to lie on the ground as he left the store, the police report stated.

When she was sure he had left, Ilias went to a neighboring store and called police, according to the report.

The other business owner said he saw the suspect running east on Como Avenue Southeast, according to the report.

According to the report, the suspect escaped with an undetermined amount of money.

Ilias said she is now afraid to go to work each day. She put a sign on her store’s door requesting customers knock. She now only lets in those that she knows, she said.

Captain’s Lunchbox has been open for approximately one year, and this is the first time it was robbed, she said.

Ilias said she had never seen the suspect before.

“I am ready to close the store because I am too scared,” Ilias said.

The suspect is described as a thin, tall black man. He was wearing a gray hooded sweatshirt with the hood pulled over his head, according to the report.

Joanna Dornfeld welcomes comments at [email protected]