MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Just a few days after Memphis police arrested a group of people accused in a string of robberies in Cordova, investigators are now looking for two more suspects who held up a man in the same area.
The latest robbery happened Thursday night in the Kroger parking lot at Germantown Parkway and Trinity Road.
The victim doesn’t want to be identified, but said he doesn’t care about the money those guys took, he just doesn’t want it to happen to someone else.
“Memphis is not a safe place. It’s not,” he said. “And I love this city, but it’s not a safe place… It’s the wild west out here.”
He’s just the latest victim in a recent rash of robberies in the area, several of which happened in Kroger parking lots, some even in the middle of the day.
“They were slick the way they came up. They definitely targeted me,” he said.
He tells WREG he had just pulled into the Kroger parking lot around 10:30 p.m. Thursday, with surveillance cameras in full view, when two men approached his car, pointed a gun at him and demanded money.
“Told me to stop **bleeping** around and quit playing games,” he said.
Meanwhile, he said, customers and employees were walking in and out of the store, but none seemed to notice.
“As dumb as some of these people are out here, they’ll shoot you over $10, so I didn’t feel like hootin’ and hollerin’ about anything,” he said.
He gave up the only cash he had, $54, which he earned waiting tables that night.
“I have a son, I’d like to see him. So, $54, whatever it was, ain’t worth my life,” he said. “They could have taken my whole car for all I cared.”
Shoppers – already on edge over the recent crime spree – are struggling to feel safe even going to the grocery store anymore.
“I’m just scared. I’m terrified,” said Kroger customer Theresa Watkins. “And I don’t want to live like that, but in this day and age, I don’t know. It’s just so much going on.”
But this latest victim is finding it hard to feel anything but anger.
“Oh, if I would have had a weapon, I would have shot them point blank, simple,” he said. “You’ll get yours. And if it ain’t from police, it’ll be from someone else. Don’t worry. What goes around comes around.”
His warning for others is to never let your guard down.
Police said those guys are between 18 and 24 and were dressed in all black.
They got into a black Nissan sedan.
If you happened to see anything or think you know who they are, call Crime Stoppers at (901) 528-CASH.
