Covelli Centre vendor robbed

‘It was somebody who knew enough about Boston Culinary,’ the center’s head says about the daring daylight robbery.

By DAVID SKOLNICK

CITY HALL REPORTER

YOUNGSTOWN — When a Boston Culinary official heard a knock on a door at the Covelli Centre, she opened it believing it was a delivery, police said.

The next thing she knew, an armed robber wearing a black ski mask and a red “puffy” coat pointed a gun at her and demanded she give him money, police said.

The 40-year-old victim, who serves as the local director for Boston Culinary, the center’s food and drink vendor, gave the robber money that was in the company’s safe, police said.

The robbery occurred about 9:15 a.m. Tuesday. The Boston Culinary employee was the only person in the company’s kitchen at the center when the robbery occurred, said Eric Ryan, the center’s executive director.

The amount of money taken hasn’t been determined, Ryan and the police said.

“It was somebody who knew enough about Boston Culinary” who committed the crime, Ryan said. “I run this place and I have no idea where Boston Culinary keeps their money.”

After stuffing the money into a bag, the robber had the victim sit in an office chair, police said. He tied her up with red duct tape and locked her inside an office, police said.

She wasn’t hurt during the robbery, Ryan said.

The victim moved the chair to the door after the robber left and kicked at it until two other employees at the center heard her, broke down the door and freed her, police said.

The robber was seen by one of the men who freed the victim run and then jump over a fence at the rear of the building, police said. The employee didn’t know about the armed robbery at that time.

A Johnson Control employee at the center said the man running from the center may have gotten into a red Ford Explorer, police said.

The robber was described as a white male, approximately 5 feet 9 inches tall with brown eyes who spoke “with a Hispanic accent,” according to the report.

This is the first robbery at the center, which opened in October 2005.

skolnick@vindy.com

Photo

Covelli Centre Executive Director Eric Ryan