LINCOLN SQUARE — A pair of gunmen impersonating police officers barged into a private, late-night poker game in the back room of a Lincoln Square cafe and stuck up the players for thousands of dollars in cash, phones and credit cards.
The high-stakes heist at 2 a.m. March 14 broke up the game in the back of Cafe Zippo at 5645 N. Lincoln Ave., police said.
The seven middle-age men playing cards were ordered to get on the ground as the robbers — who shouted "Police! Police" as they stormed in — rounded up approximately $5,000 in cash, $2,000 in cellphones and a handful of credit and debit cards, police said.
Gunmen stormed into Cafe Zippo at 2 a.m March 14 and robbed seven men playing cards. (DNAinfo/Mark Schipper)
The bar is located just two blocks from the Foster District Police Station at 5400 N. Lincoln Ave.
The robbers first banged on the cafe’s front door and then forced their way in when someone inside opened it. They rushed into the back room where the card game was underway with their guns drawn, police said.
“Police! Police! Everybody down on the ground!” they yelled before demanding to speak with whoever was in charge.
The cafe’s owner/manager came forward and was the first to be robbed as the men rifled through his pockets, removing a large wad of cash and a phone, police said.
Both robbers were wielding black, semi-automatic handguns and pointed them at the players as they ordered them to the ground before cleaning out their pockets. One of the gunmen wore a jacket with “Police” written across the back and had handcuffs attached to the front of his pants.
After looting the men and ordering them to stay down, the armed men ran out the cafe’s back door and got into a getaway car waiting in the alley, the players told police.
One of the men whose iPhone was taken during the robbery said he’d tracked it using the GPS system all the way to the 6100 block of North Caldwell Avenue, but no arrests were made that night.
The owner of the cafe, reached by phone, confirmed the cafe had been robbed during a card game. He declined to comment further because of the ongoing investigation.
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