BRIDGEPORT — For the first time in the four decades Bridgeport Bakery has been open, someone walked in with a gun and robbed the place.
At 5:15 a.m. Thursday, Mariela Pantoja, 19, stood behind the counter at 2907 S. Archer Ave. waiting for the day’s first customer.
A man walked in wearing a black hoodie and ski mask.
“Can I help you?” Pantoja asked.
“Empty out the register,” the man in the mask said.
“Excuse me?” Pantoja said.
“Give me the money in the register,” the man said.
Confused, Pantoja looked down. When she looked up again, she stared at the barrel of the large black handgun pointed at her.
“Oh,” Pantoja remembers saying.
That’s when she went to the cash register and collected the money inside — a little more than $70 in $20 bills and smaller change. Most doughnuts there cost less than a buck.
The man took the money and walked out the door.
“Everything happened in two minutes or less," said Pantoja, who saw the robber walk down Archer toward Loomis.
Shaken, Pantoja went to the back to tell the other girl working the morning shift what happened.
Chicago Police officers soon showed up and scanned the area for the masked man. A customer who came in a short time later told her she saw the masked man running down Loomis.
Panoja couldn't describe what the man looked like to detectives. All she could remember was the gun, the ski mask and the man's voice telling her to open the register.
Store owners were not immediately available for comment Thursday. Detectives are investigating.
After the police left, Pantoja went back to work, stuffing doughnuts in bags and putting the day’s cash in the register.
She felt paranoid any time a man walked in the store and put his hands in his pockets.
“I would be like, ‘Oh my god, is he going to pull out a gun?’”
Pantoja got through the day, but she’s worried how she’ll feel at the start of the next morning shift.
“I’m going to be a little on my feet,” she said.
Victoria Alonzo has been a longtime customer at Bridgeport Bakery. On Thursday morning, she stopped in for her favorite: Chocolate covered custard doughnut.
The news of the robbery shocked her.
“Unbelievable,” she said. “I hope they find some clues and find out who did it.”
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