The Face Of Crime

Minneapolis KSTP News has made available footage from a recent robbery in Bloomington (MN). For out of area readers, Bloomington is a large first-ring suburb adjacent to Minneapolis, which, as you've seen exhaustively on this blog, has been experiencing waves of violent robberies since the spring of 2005.

Is the Bloomington "takeover" style robbery a carryover from it's Minneapolis neighbor?

Here's the story: "Video captures thieves robbing local hotel ".

A surveillance image taken by a camera inside a south metro hotel shows dramatic pictures of armed thieves rushing a hotel desk.

The two thieves who robbed the Bloomington Comfort Inn are also wanted in another robbery, and police have issued a reward to encourage the public to help in their capture.

5 EYEWITNESS NEWS obtained the exclusive video of the robbery. The video shows the thieves ordering the employee to the ground, jumping over the counter and then stealing the money in the cash register.

Imagine the terror the employees felt. These activities can't be allowed to continue or to fester in our core cities, as has been happening for the past year in particular.

The video can be accessed through this link.

"It's unsettling and it leaves people wondering, ‘Why would somebody do something like that?’” asked Manager Don Peterson.

Well, Don, because they're criminals. Because folks like R.T Rybak don't care, and folks like Hennepin County Attorney Amy Klobuchar can't get the job done.

Police say the same pair robbed the Hampton Inn in Minnetonka one hour later, using the same tactics.

Police have no leads or suspects, but the Comfort Inn is offering a $5,000 reward for information that would lead to an arrest.

“We would like to see these people off the street,” Peterson says. "We would hate to see another business have to go through this, and the employees and some other businesses’ customers have to go through this."

These hardcore criminals are out there. And robbers don't stop until they're caught. The warm weather of spring awaits us, folks, and its not going to be pretty.

People with any knowledge of the crimes are urged to call Crime Stoppers, at 651-45-CRIME.