After multiple armed robberies and robbery attempts at nearby businesses in Allied Gardens, store owners are taking it upon themselves to beef up security.
The latest incident happened on Saturday night just before 6 p.m. when an employee at The San Diego Flower Shop at 5101 Waring Road was robbed at gunpoint as she closed down for the night.
The employee emptied the cash from the register into her pocket and exited the shack-like storefront adjacent to Waring Road, across the parking lot from the main shopping center.
In the parking lot right outside of the door was a masked man with a gun who demanded she turn around and go back inside.
The suspect, described as a 6-foot tall male wearing a black hoodie, bandana and gloves, took an undisclosed amount of money out of the employee's pocket and ran off in an unknown direction.
The incident at the flower shop comes on the heels of two robberies at the Little Ceasar's Pizza, a robbery at a taco shop and attempted ATM snatch and grab at a Union Bank all in the same shopping center.
As San Diego Police Department robbery detectives investigate the robbery at the flower shop, the shop's owner is installing a new security system and lighting so that police have more evidence to work with if it ever happens again.
