Sunoco robbed twice this week

Pittsburgh police officers are seeking a man who robbed the Sunoco gas station in South Oakland early Tuesday morning ­— the second robbery at the gas station in less than a week.

Officers responded to a call of an armed robbery around 2:05 a.m. at the gas station on the 300 block of Craft Ave., a release from Pittsburgh police said.

A man entered the store and demanded that the store clerk place money from the register into a white grocery bag, according to the release. The man pulled out a silver handgun and pointed it at the clerk, the release said.

After taking an undisclosed amount of money, the release said, the man then left the store and ran away toward Kennett Square in South Oakland.

Police described the man as black and about 5 feet 5 inches tall, weighing about 130 pounds. At the time of robbery, the man was wearing a black jacket, black jeans, white gloves and a mask, police said.

Police responded to a similar incident at the Craft Avenue gas station last Thursday but are seeking a different suspect from Tuesday’s robbery.

Late Thursday night, March 10, city police officers responded to the gas station for a call of a robbery. In that incident, a man who police described as black and between 5 feet 10 inches and 6 feet tall also threatened a different store clerk and stole money from the cash register. This man did not have a gun.

Police said that man also ran away from the store toward Kennett Square.

Police spokesperson Sonya Toler said police had determined how much money that man had stolen but would not disclose the amount.

At this time, Toler said police do not believe the two incidents are related.

“As of now, nothing points to the robberies being connected,” Toler said.

As of Tuesday, police had not made any arrests in either case.

Police are currently reviewing security camera footage from the gas station, Toler said. Police are continuing to investigate both incidents.

Andrei Vitiuc, the manager of the store, wouldn’t say how much money was taken in either robbery but said it was “not too much.” During the first robbery, he said, another customer who was in the store at the time didn’t realize a man was robbing the store.

“He just came in and said, ‘Give me the money,’ and that was it,” Vitiuc said. “Everyone thinks it was a lot of money, but it wasn’t … cashiers aren’t allowed to carry more than $100.”

When the cashier called him after the first robbery, he said, he was frightened, but by the second time, he wasn’t.

“Of course, I was worried. When my employee called me, he was scared and I was scared,” Vitiuc said. “But the second time, we understood he just wanted money. He didn’t want to hurt anyone.”