Newport News, Va. - Police say two men are on the run after one was caught on camera stealing cash from Buddy’s Hideaway in Newport News this past Saturday.
They say this happened at around 9 p.m.
The men came together and were in and out in less than 30 minutes.
“Shot one game of pool, drank one beer, stole the money then gone,” says Buddy Hollowell, owner of Buddy’s Hideaway. “Bing, bang gone.”
Hollowell, who has been in the restaurant business for 36 years, says this is a first.
“That night I couldn’t even sleep,” he says. “I just kept thinking about someone coming in and doing this to me. It was just very unnerving to me. Hard to accept.”
In the surveillance video, you can see as the two men are playing pool together, they eye a waitress counting cash inside the office. She forgot to lock the door behind her. Hollowell says it was a simple mistake on their part. He says that night a pool tournament was going on and the staff was unusually busy.
“Shouldn’t have given them the opportunity,” he says. “They had it. They took it.”
The video shows the men then slowly make their way over to the office. They appear to be interested in a game by the back wall. One of the men leaves while the other makes sure no one is looking. He then nudges the door open.
After a few minutes of pacing, the man makes a call on his cell, and two more trips to the office. Once to open the money drawer, then when the coast is clear he snatches up $250. He stuffs the cash down his pants, then walks out.
To Hollowell, it’s not about the money.
“It’s not the $250,” he says. “It’s the fact that somebody was able to come in here and do this to you and walk out the door and say look what we did.”
Hollowell says one man is approximately 6’3” and weighs 260 lbs. The other man appears to be about 6’ tall and weigh approximately 190 lbs. If you have any information about who these men are, call the Newport News Police Department.
