Police said yesterday that the man they arrested in connection with the Saturday morning robbery of Cosi on 36th Street is a former employee of the coffee shop and a current Inn at Penn staff member.
Troy Martin, 38, of the 2100 block of Indiana Street in North Philadelphia, allegedly entered Cosi at about 7:15 a.m. as employees prepared to open the store wearing a plastic bag with eye holes cut out in an attempt to obscure his face.
Police say Martin told an employee that he had a gun and demanded money. He escaped with about $100 from the cash register, Penn Police Deputy Chief of Investigations Mike Morrin said.
Despite the disguise, Morrin said, several of the employees recognized Martin's facial features and voice.
Morrin added that Martin was dismissed from his job at Cosi about two months ago because of repeated lateness or other work-related reasons, not because of any violence or threats.
A manager at the local Cosi refused to comment yesterday on the case, pending the outcome of the investigation. A call to Cosi's corporate offices was not immediately returned.
Sharon Colzie, director of Human Resources at the Hilton Inn at Penn, would neither confirm nor deny that Martin is an employee at the hotel due to privacy laws.
Morrin was unsure of Martin's job function at the hotel.
Detectives suspected that the perpetrator might have once been an employee because he seemed to have knowledge of Cosi's store-opening procedures. There were no customers in the store at the time of the robbery.
After several of the employees identified Martin as the robber, police secured an arrest warrant.
Detectives and uniformed Penn Police officers waited for Martin Sunday afternoon on the unit block of South 37th Street -- a location through which they believed he would travel -- and made the arrest without incident. Morrin did not reveal how detectives knew that Martin might be found on that block.
Martin was charged with robbery, theft, receiving stolen property, making terroristic threats, simple assault and recklessly endangering another person.
-- Andrew Whitney
