Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-12-15
BANDITS GET $50
IN THREE STORES
Two Men Hold Up Chinese
Laundryman-Grocer
Is Robbed.

Three store holdups occurred within
three hours last night in a radius of
a few blocks The bandits were de-
scribed as negroes in every case.
Two bandits held up Sam Lees
laundry. 1921 Seventeenth street.
about o'clock. getting SO; half
hour later one man, suspected of hav-
ing a partner ON the outside, held up
the grocery store of Morris Phillips,
1347 Il street. taking SO, and shortly
after II o'clock, three men. one of
them a ''two-gun man." held up
Zarouni's delicatessen. 1906 Fourteenth
street. making away with $40,
sam Lee took his adventure philo'
sophically. Laughing and chuckhng,
he ran about his laundry dramatically
enacting the holdup, first impersonat-
ing the bandits and then showing how
he acted when one of the men stuck
a big black gunnee" in his face.
Bandit Takes $40.
when I see the gunnee. say.
no. no. no. no. no" Sam Lee explained
in his broken English. THE man,
he say, come, come, come, come
come"
While one man pursued the fleeing
laundryman who ran about the room,
the other pulled open the cash drawer
and extracted $40. Then the two
bandits fed leaving Sam to ask a
neighbor TO telephone police.
Mrs Zarouni, whose husband,
George Zarouni. owns the delicatesSen
store at 1906 Fourteenth street. said
she was in the back room while her
husband was preparing to close the
store for the night. when three men
entered. She came into the store just
IN time to see one man. holding a
pistol in each hand. point the weapons
al her husband and threaten:
open your mouth and I'll kill YOU"
He kept his weapons upon the store
keeper and his wife. while his confed-
crates rifled the cash register. taking
$40. AS woman customer approached
the front door. the man pocketed his
pistols and, accompanied by his two
companions brushed by the customer
and disappeared down Fourteenth
street.
Customer i'm Store.
Morris Phillips. the grocer at 1347
f street, was waiting on a colored
girl when a negro. whom he had seen
often before, entered his store.
I'm in TO hurry" he remarked to
the girl, but a moment later he pulled
q revolver from his pocket and point
ed it at the grocer. telling the fright
ened child TO run on out"
The bandit shielded his gun with his
sweater from the view of passersby.
Reaching over the counter, he took
$40 from the cash register and then
walked out, keeping his gun trained
on his victim until the door closed
after him.
Mr.. Phillips stated that a few min
utes before the hold-up, he had OBJ
served the man, hat pulled low over
his eyes. walking to and fro in front
of the store, while another man stood
in the entrance to an alley across the
street. He was of the opinion that the
two men were partners and that they
planned originally to hold up the laun-
dry of Chin Sam. two doors away at
1343 r street. but abandoned their
scheme when they saw several Gus
toners in the laundry.
The description he gave of the men
answered the general description fur
nished by Sam Lee of the men who
held him up. thereby adding another
to a chain of more than half dozen
Chinese laundry hold-ups which have
occurred in the past 10 days.