Armed man holds up FWOT, assaults manager

A masked man armed with a gun stormed into the Fingers, Wings and Other Things restaurant on 40th Street shortly after midnight yesterday, handcuffing and assaulting the manager before robbing him of $50 in cash, police said. The suspect, whom witnesses described as a "strong" 6-foot-tall man in his twenties dressed in black except for white sneakers, was last seen running out of the store headed north on 40th Street. The incident began at about 12:20 a.m. Monday morning, as the manager, in his 40s, and a 20-year-old employee were leaving the restaurant. Brandishing what the employee called a "big-ass gun," the suspect accosted the two men inside the lobby of the restaurant, which is located next to Smokey Joe's, witnesses said. When the manager told the suspect the store had closed and he had no money, he handcuffed them together and struck the manager several times on the head with his gun until he surrendered about $50 in cash he was carrying, according to University Police Det. Frank DeMeo. The robber then fled the store. College senior and Daily Pennsylvanian staffer Ben Dietz, who was standing outside the nearby Radio Shack store at the time, said he saw the manager stumbling and bleeding from his face as he emerged from the FWOT entrance. Dietz then alerted a nearby Spectaguard of the situation and called University Police from Smokey Joe's, he said, adding that he and an employee at the bar obtained a wet towel for the manager's wounds and stayed with him until police came. After arriving at the scene, police rushed the FWOT manager to the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, where the handcuffs on his wrists were cut off and he was treated for lacerations to the face and right eye, DeMeo said. University Police are currently investigating the incident, which is the fourth armed robbery of a campus retail store this semester. In an unrelated incident, two men robbed and assaulted a male University student Saturday evening at 24th and Lombard streets in Center City, DeMeo said. According to DeMeo, the graduate student -- who lives near 20th and Pine streets -- was walking west on Lombard Street toward campus at about 9:30 p.m. when two men approached him, one from behind. Without saying anything, the man behind the student struck him on the head and knocked him to the ground. The other suspect then hit him again, grabbing his wallet, which contained $60 in cash, credit cards and his PennCard. The two suspects then fled eastbound on Lombard Street. The student ran westbound on the same street toward campus, where he called University Police from Meyerson Hall at 34th and Walnut streets. University Police rushed the student to HUP, where he was treated for abrasions on his hand and minor lacerations to his head. He was released the same night. Daily Pennsylvanian City News Editor Scott Lanman contributed to this article.