Crime Stoppers 090208

Two Purple Parrot locations were robbed overnight, and police believe a single person may be responsible. The robberies happened within 20 minutes of each other Monday night, and while Purple Parrots are common targets for criminals, police say robberies at the gaming parlors have spiked in recent weeks.

Police say a man walked into one Purple Parrot location just before midnight Monday, pulled a gun, and demanded money. Moments after officers arrived at the scene, they received word of another armed robbery at a Purple Parrot on Roberts Road. Police believe there is a connection between the two crimes. Lt. Tim Doney from the Medford Police Department said, "Medford is what we call a one horse town. If we see a string of robberies occuring within a short time span, we certainly entertain the idea that it may be the same suspect or group of suspects."

In both robberies, the suspect is described as a tall, thin man with tan or olive skin. He was last seen wearing a dark blue windbreaker with a gray hood. The man wore a ski mask during the robberies. Police believe he may have hit more than two gaming parlors in the past few weeks. Lt. Doney added, "We are certainly entertaining that the suspect or suspects involved may have been involved in two Purple Parrot robberies in the last week and a half. One was in medford on Biddle Road, and the other one in the Phoenix area.

The Biddle Road Purple Parrot was robbed on August 19 by a person with a similar description. And one week ago security cameras caught images of a man who robbed the Phoenix Flamingo. The store is operated by the same company that owns the Purple Parrots. Police said there are several reasons why criminals favor the lottery and gaming centers. "You're looking at a business that has cash on hand, late at night it's relatively dark at a lot of these locations, you've got limited amount of customers," said Lt. Doney.

And while no one has been hurt in these most recent incidents, police say armed robberies are always a cause for concern. "You're talking about somebody going in, and they're got a gun, and there's certainly a high potential for violence and injury or death," he added.

We tried to speak with the owners of Purple Parrot's parent company, but they were unavailable for comment.

Police are looking for your help to catch the people involved. the case number is 09-02-08. If you have any information concerning a possible suspect in this crime call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-3-DETECT. Sonitrol will pay up to $1,000 for information that leads to the arrest and the filing of charges and you can remain anonymous if you would like.