By Yepoka Yeebo
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
EAST VILLAGE — Police nabbed two alleged robbers who stormed into a East 14th Street deli in broad daylight Monday and made off with a brown paper bag stuffed with roughly $200 in cash, police and employees said.
The two alleged thieves demanded the cash from a worker at the 14 St. Deli Grocery near the corner of First Avenue around 11:30 a.m., threatening the man with a gun they claimed to have but didn't flash, police and employees said.
A pair of plainclothes officers in the area caught up with the alleged robbers in the subway station at 14th Street and First Avenue, arresting the two men after staff identified them as the perpetrators, police said.
"We called the cops, they came, and one caught them in the subway," said Sidel Alohmidi, who was behind the counter when the alleged robbers burst in. "It was very hard for me, it was my first [robbery]."
Alohmidi, 57, said he was relieved that the robbers were caught so quickly, and that police were able to get the money back.
"I think it was God," he said. "I didn't want anybody to get hurt, I didn't want to get hurt."