Police Investigating Armed Robberies at 2 Lawrenceville Waffle House Restaurants

The same man may have robbed two Lawrenceville Waffle House restaurants at gunpoint within the span of just a half an hour according to Gwinnett County police.

On Tuesday, July 23 at about 3:30am, a man dressed completely in black walked into the Waffle House at 4135 Sugarloaf Parkway carrying a small black handgun. 

A black hooded sweatshirt, ski mask, hat, gloves and sunglasses covered the suspect’s entire body. No distinguishing features could be seen.

Three employees and two customers were in the restaurant at the time. 

One server told police the suspect told her to give him all the cash from the register. Another server told police the man shouted “Get on the floor, give me all the money, I’m not playing.”

The employees followed the man’s demands and gave him $402 in cash.

When reviewing the surveillance video, police noticed the suspect dropped some of the money as it was being handed to him and he had to pick it up off the floor.

Police say the robbery took only about thirty seconds.

While investigators were on the scene, the Waffle House general manager received a call that another restaurant on Scenic Highway had just been robbed as well.

The second armed robbery occurred at the Waffle House at 1255 Scenic Highway at 4:05am—just about a half hour after the Sugarloaf location had been hit.

A waitress told police she was outside the restaurant when a man matching the description from the earlier robbery walked up to her and told her to hurry up and get inside. 

The robber had a gun. He told the waitress he did not want to hurt her and demanded she open the register and give him the money.  She tried to open the drawer but could not. The suspect told the woman to stop playing with him and open the register. Finally, the waitress manually forced the drawer open and gave the man $200 in cash. 

The waitress described the suspect as a young, black male in his twenties, about 5’10” to 6” tall weighing between 170 and 200 pounds. She also noticed a gold, older model two door pickup truck drive up behind the restaurant and then the suspect coming up to her moments later. 

According to the police report from the first crime, both robberies may also be connected to a hold up at a Waffle House in Norcross later that morning.