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Armed robbers hit victims in Willows, Sharon Heights

Menlo Park police are investigating two robberies that took place Feb. 16: an armed robbery of the Willows Market, and a strong-arm robbery in Sharon Heights.

Two men held up an employee at the market, located at the corner of Willow Road and Middlefield Road, around 7:10 p.m., police said. Brandishing a handgun, the men forced the employee to empty the market's cash registers, then ran south on Middlefield, according to witnesses.

Customers were in the market when the robbery occurred, but no patrons were targeted, Acting Sergeant Kevin Paugh said.

In another incident at 5:45 p.m., two men robbed an employee of the Blockbuster Video at 3532 Alameda de las Pulgas, as he went to deposit cash from the store at a bank in Sharon Heights.

The men approached the Blockbuster employee near the intersection of Warner Range and Sharon Park Drive, pushed him to the ground and stole the bag of money he was carrying, according to Acting Sergeant Paugh. They then fled in a black Toyota pickup truck.

Witnesses described one of the men who robbed the Willows Market as a 5-foot-7 or 5-foot-8 black man, wearing dark pants and a dark-colored hooded sweatshirt, with a white ski mask covering the lower part of his face. The other man, also black, was described as standing between 6-foot-2 and 6-foot-4, and weighing between 220 and 250 pounds. He wore dark pants and a black, hooded sweatshirt, with a mask or shirt covering his face.

The perpetrators of the Sharon Heights strong-arm robbery were 19 or 20 years old, witnesses said. One, a white man with blond hair, wore jeans, a red T-shirt, white basketball shoes and a black baseball cap. The other, a Hispanic man with short brown hair and a mustache, wore a white T-shirt and gray sweatpants.

The police department asks anyone with information to call the police department at 330-6300, or the anonymous tip line at 330-6395.

—Bay City News Service contributed to this report.