It’s no secret strip clubs can pull in a lot of money — but rarely any bills above a $20. But that didn’t stop a robber from demanding a boat load of cash.
WPRI reports a Providence, Rhode Island, strip club was robbed at gunpoint Monday and the thief made off with $22,000 — in $1 bills.
Ed Imondi, manager of the Cadillac Lounge, said the robbery happened as the strip club was about to open. He thought it was a joke at first when the suspect moseyed on in and brandished a gun while demanding money.
“He said, ‘This is a robbery.’ I said, ‘What?’ And he said, ‘I’m going to rob the place,'” Imondi recalled. The suspect took the roughly $3,500 Imondi had in his hands and also emptied a safe.
Imondi adds another safe was already open, but the suspect wasn’t interested in the money inside of it.
“Why would you not care about the [safe] that I already have open? You can see there’s money in there,” said Imondi. “He said, ‘No, not that safe. I want the money that’s in that one.'”
“He took all the ones, I could hear him stacking them into the big bag he had,” said Imondi. “Obviously, he knew we had a lot of money in there.” In all, it was $22,000.
Imondi was ordered not to turn around as the thief fled through the back door, hopped a fence and scurried across the train tracks.
Because the thief knew the place so well — and also which safe that had the most money inside — Imondi and club owner Dick Shappy think this was an inside job.
A person of interest was captured inside of a nearby Walgreens, but police have not released their identification.