Police investigating links after 11th hotel robbed - 9NEWS.com

WESTMINSTER - The general manager of the Comfort Inn claims guests were oblivious to the armed robbery and did not know what was happening until police showed up. Police are investigating whether this robbery is connected to 10 other incidents.

Around 9 p.m. on Thursday, a man walked up to the hotel on foot, walked in the front door wearing a black mask and goggles.

He pulled out a handgun and pointed it in the desk clerk's face, he then hopped over the counter, told the clerk to get on the ground and ripped a surveillance camera off the wall. Little did he know, there were half a dozen others pointing straight at him.

The robber then disconnected all the phones behind the front desk and took the clerk's cell phone.

It three minutes he was out the door with cash in hand.

Robert Kitzhofer is the general manager of the hotel and said in the six years the hotel has been operating in that location, it has never had an armed robbery. Kitzhofer thinks the robber is pretty desperate for money because motels do the majority of their transactions on credit cards and therefore have very little cash.

"I think he is a psychopath," Kitzhofer said. "You come in, holding a gun to someone - knowing a hotel does not carry that much money - and threaten other people's lives? I want this person caught. To do this for just a few dollars, it just doesn't make sense."

Kitzhofer says he's not taking any chances. By noon Friday, he installed more cameras and has made it a policy that the doors on the building are locked after 8:30 p.m. - only guests with hotel keys can enter.

Police say this is the 11th robbery of this type since Aug. 26 in the Denver area.

"There are definite similarities between these robberies," Trevor Materasso, investigator with Westminster Police Department, said. "These are very scary robberies. Take-over style robberies where the individual comes in with a gun and makes him lay down on the ground. It's the aggressive type of crime that's concerning us."

In each robbery, police say the man enters the hotel lobby wearing a mask and carrying a black handgun. He is also very aggressive with the clerk and demands money from the front desk cash drawer. He also demands that the clerk open the safe, but most employees don't have the combination.

According to investigators, the robber then takes phone receivers from the desk area and takes cellphones from employees and then disposes of them.

The man is between 5 feet 6 inches and 5 feet 9 inches tall and he has a slim build. He wears a long-sleeve dark shirt and blue jeans. He has worn different masks, including a "Jason"-type hockey mask, a scary clown/skull, which is red and white and described as "bloody," and a greenish mask. He has also worn a black ski mask. He also wears black gloves.

No car has been seen at any of the robberies, but headlights were seen at one of them. Most of the robberies happen between 9 p.m. and 1 a.m. Police say he is targeting hotels that are near interstates or major highways to make an easier getaway.

If you know anything about the Comfort Inn robbery, or any of the robberies, you should call Crime Stoppers main tip-line at 720-913-STOP (7867).

(KUSA-TV © 2011 Multimedia Holdings Corporation)

01 Oct, 2011

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