Two gunmen rob pizzeria, scare patrons

Two men, shotguns in hand, robbed Boccie Pizzeria of about $750 Saturday evening, and terrified employees and customers by blasting a hole in the ceiling. After taking money from the bartender and attempting to break into an upstairs safe, the men fled on foot, police said. No one was injured in the robbery, and no arrests have been made. Police described the men as black males, both 5 feet 6 inches tall, wearing dark jeans and wool caps. Police said the men entered the restaurant, located in the Warehouse on the 4000 block of Locust Street, shortly after 10:15 p.m. Several customers had recently come into the restaurant during a late dinner rush. According to police and witnesses, the men walked across the restaurant -- from the Irving Street entrance to the bar area -- and announced they were staging a hold up. When the bartender begged their pardon, the men apparently grew angry. One of the men loudly asked if the bartender thought they were joking. He then walked toward Saladalley Restaurant, which shares space with Boccie, and fired a shot at an airconditioning duct. Tommy Leonardi, a free-lance photographer who attended the University, was sitting at the opposite end of the restaurant when he heard what sounded "like a bomb -- the loudest, scariest noise I've ever heard." "If he was doing it to intimidate us, he did a good job," Leonardi said of the blast. "No one was taking him seriously. [But] once that gun went off . . . ." The men ordered the employees and more than a dozen customers to lie on the ground. Stunned by the shotgun blast, many quickly took cover under tables and chairs. One of the men ordered the bartender to hand over the money in the cash register, while the other headed for a safe in an upstairs office. Fearing that the men might start shooting, Leonardi said he dove behind a table when he saw their backs turned and then crawled unseen into the kitchen. "I had no reassurance that I was going to be safe if I cooperated," Leonardi said. "There have just been too many incidents. I just thought, 'Oh my God, I've just got to get the hell out of here.' " Once in the kitchen, Leonardi said, he encountered several employees who apparently did not know what was happening. He then ran onto Irving Street and called Public Safety from a house on 41st Street. Leonardi, who was at Boccie with a friend, said he was "picturing the worst" while getting help. He said he imagined returning to the restaurant to find police sifting through "blown-off body parts." "It didn't seem to me like they were going to rob the cash register," he said. "They just happened not to kill anybody." Sue Basiura, the general manager of Saladalley, said the robbery has left many Boccie employees dazed and shaken up, particularly the bartender. Basiura said she was concerned that the robbery was a "targeted incident" which someone -- possibly a former employee -- set up after learning how Boccie operates. Basiura said the perpetrators appeared to know the location of the restaurant's safe. The men apparently knew to climb the stairs on the Saladalley side of the restaurant, not the Boccie side, in order to reach the office door. Basiura said an assistant general manager, who saw what was happening from upstairs, locked the office door and tripped the silent alarm before fleeing through another door. The man ripped off the office door but could not gain access to the safe, Basiura said. She also noted that the robbery occurred about 15 minutes after nearby stores, including Saladalley and Urban Outfitters, closed for the night, suggesting the timing was planned. In the wake of the robbery, Basiura said officers from either University Police or Philadelphia Police will check on the restaurant every half hour to 45 minutes throughout the day. Boccie will also be updating its alarm system to include more "panic buttons," she said.

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