COLUMBIA, MO. -- Columbia police have responded to 5 robberies since Thanksgiving Eve.
The latest Columbia robbery took place around midnight on Sunday when 2 armed robbers got away with some cash at an eastside hotel.
Investigators don’t have a connection between any of the recent robberies.
One of the armed robbers at Columbia’s Wingate Hotel on Keene Street hit a hotel clerk with a handgun before running away with an undisclosed amount of cash. Investigators have few leads.
Columbia Police Officer Latisha Stroer said, “In all five, they were either wearing a mask or a bandanna. We can’t get them identified at this point through video surveillance.”
Police are also looking for the person who robbed a Columbia Dollar General Store on Vandiver Drive on Saturday night. Investigators said the suspect in that robbery is either a black male or a black female. The store manager told us the suspect is a white male since he saw the color of his skin near his wrist. Authorities said it’s not unusual to see more robberies during the holiday season.
Stroer said, “The question has been, it is unusual for us to have five robberies within a week during the thanksgiving holiday? If we look at numbers from years before, that’s seems to be the case. We just have an increase in robberies during this time.”
Out of the 5 recent Columbia robberies, the robbery at the Wingate Hotel and a robbery at a Sonic Drive-In on Paris Road are the most similar since they both involved 2 suspects with handguns.
Boone County Sheriff’s Investigators are also looking for a woman who attempted a robbery at the Kwik BP gas station on St. Charles Road on Friday night.
The woman displayed a handgun then ran away on foot without getting any money or merchandise.