Armed robbery caught on camera at Waterford check cashing store

WATERFORD TWP., MIch. (WJBK) - An armed robber is caught on camera holding up a check cashing business - and the suspect is on the run.

Waterford Township's Check Into Cash had just closed for the night at 6 p.m. when the assistant manager went home. Behind the counter the clerk was preparing to close up and the front door is unlocked.

Suddenly a guy walks in; he stops and walks up to a light switch, hits the lights and pulls out a handgun. He pointed the gun at the clerk demanding cash and they both disappear in the back out of camera view.

The gunman didn't take long. He grabbed cash and escaped out the back door. But what happened shook the clerk to the core.

"I blacked out. If you have a gun in your face you don't know you panic," said Bianca. "So I turned around, I did exactly what he asked me to do and I think that probably saved my life."

Look at the video again. Frozen stiff she complied and the gunman escaped with an undisclosed amount of cash. No shots fired. No one hurt. No vehicle seen. 

What did he look like? Bianca told Waterford police he was tall and thin.

"Police asked me and I could not tell you color he was," she said. "He was covered from top to bottom."

FOX 2: "He had a mask? He had everything."

Now with the guy going for the light switch, the view from outside may have been diminished, but as for Bianca?

FOX 2: "With the light off you could still see the gun yourself?"

"You could see him actually holding the gun but I couldn't see anything else," she said. "What went through your heart and your mind when you saw that? My son. Your son. My son."

In this area of M-59 and Crescent Lake Road in Waterford, an armed robbery is unusual.

There was no vehicle seen and the suspect was all layered up from head to toe including gloves. We don't even have a racial makeup.

But M-59 is very busy. And it was rush hour at 6:15 p.m. Dec. 2 and the store is right off M-59. Someone saw something, if you did call Waterford police (248) 674-0351 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-SPEAKUP.