Three Haverstraw men were arrested today in connection with an early-morning robbery at the New City McDonald's, where police say a current employee of the restaurant is accused of helping a former employee in the robbery.
Police said no one was injured in the robbery, which took place about 3:10 a.m. today at the Calvalry Drive restaurant. Two men were arrested by Clarkstown police within minutes of the robbery and about $6,000 that was stolen was recovered.
A third man, an employee who was one of two workers tied up at the restaurant in the robbery, was later arrested after an investigation by Clarkstown detectives, who charged him with being a participant in the robbery.
Police said the incident began when two men, Elvis Jorge, 22, and Pablo Lopez, 28, entered an open door at the McDonald's, which was closed for the night. Police said Jorge and Lopez threatened a manager and a worker inside the restaurant with a metal baseball bat and then tied up the two employees with tape.
Jorge and Lopez, police said, took more than $3,000 from the restaurant safe and then fled with the money in a bag.
Police said that within minutes the store manager was able to break free of the tape and called police. As a Clarkstown police officer was on his way to the McDonald's in response to the emergency call, he spotted Jorge and Lopez in the nearby park-and-ride commuter lot along Route 304.
Police said the two men were found with the bag containing the cash from the McDonald's robbery. Police said Jorge and Lopez were arrested without incident.
Police said Lopez is a former employee at the New City McDonald's. During the investigation, police said detectives discovered that one of the two employees tied up in the robbery, Joan Sanchez-Perez, 29, was actually a participant in the robbery.
Police said the door used by Jorge and Lopez to enter the McDonald's is normally closed and locked. Investigators believe Jorge and Lopez were waiting at the commuter lot for someone to pick them up.
Jorge and Lopez are both accused of robbery, grand larceny, menacing, possession of stolen property and possession of a weapon. Sanchez-Perez is accused of acting in concert with a robbery, conspiracy and criminal facilitation.
All three men were arraigned this afternoon in Clarkstown Town Court in New City, with Jorge ordered held in the Rockland County Correctional Facility in New City without bail, and Sanchez-Perez and Lopez were both being held on $25,000 bail each.
