Melissa Bailey Photo
Annie’s Deli sells hard-to-find epazote, but no tobacco products.
The fourth time the robber came to rip off her bodega, Silvia Eliosa and her brother-in-law locked the front door, called the cops — and protected a healthful Mexican oasis in the Hill.
Eliosa (pictured), who’s 44, owns Annie’s Deli, a small Mexican grocery store at 188 Rosette St.
Nested on a residential side street, the store sells a bounty of fresh Mexican produce — and no cigarettes.
Eliosa said she’s had some problems with robberies over the past nine years she’s run the store, but nothing like what has happened in the last month.
In just four weeks, the same masked man held up the store three times at gunpoint. Then he attempted a fourth robbery.
On Thursday, a week after the latest attempt, Eliosa was working at the counter. She said she remains shaken, has trouble sleeping. But she hopes that extra measures will prevent the man’s return.
She recounted the events of the past month between tallying customers’ bills on a small calculator.
The first hold-up took place at 1 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 21. A man in black gloves, a hooded sweatshirt with a red stripe and a black mask came into the store and pointed a black gun at the clerk.
“Give me the money! All the money,” the man instructed.
He took the money and walked away. Eliosa said she believes he lives in the neighborhood because he arrives at the deli by foot.
The man returned on a Saturday at 9:30 a.m. This time, Eliosa was working the counter. It was the same man — tall, skinny, wearing the black gloves and a black mask. He pointed a gun; she handed over cash from the register.
Eliosa said this time, her father-in-law was standing guard at the door. However, he was talking on his cell phone at the moment the robber came in. By the time he noticed, it was too late. Her father-in-law followed the man down Frank Street. He got away.
Eliosa said her father-in-law suggested calling the cops. She didn’t want to.
“I said, ‘Don’t call, because it will scare the customers.’”
Many customers are Mexican immigrants who don’t have papers, she explained. Despite a general order in New Haven that instructs cops not to check for immigration papers on routine police calls, her customers try to avoid the cops.
“They’re frightened,” she said.
So nobody called the cops even when the man returned a third time, this time on a Sunday at 6 p.m. He pointed the gun, grabbed some cash, and fled.
The fourth time, Eliosa and her family were ready.
It was last Thursday around 10:30 a.m. Eliosa stood behind the counter peeling the spines off a nopal, or prickly pear cactus, which she sells raw, to be cooked at home.
Her brother-in-law was outside, taking out some boxes. He saw the man coming again, dressed in his usual outfit.
He slipped into the store, closed the door, and locked the deadbolt. The robber came up to the door and tried to get in.
“He was banging, banging,” she said.
When the robber couldn’t get in, he gave up and went home.
This time, Eliosa called the cops. They came quickly — thought not quickly enough to catch the suspect.
Lt. Holly Wasilewski, the Hill’s top cop, said her crew’s on the case, looking for the robber.
Meanwhile, Eiosa said the incidents have been troubling.
“I feel bad,” she said. “Sometimes at night, you can’t sleep.”
She said she worries the man will use his gun — especially if he comes back on a day when business is slow and gets mad when he finds out there’s not much cash in the register.
Since the robberies, she has started hiring men to stand guard at the door. On Thursday morning, an elderly man stood at the entrance while Eliosa tended to customers.
One man bought a big bag of chicharrones, or fried pork skins.
Eliosa, who lives in West Haven, hails from Tlaxcala, Mexico. She said most people come in the store to buy Mexican produce that they can’t find in other stores. That includes a small, round squash called chilacayote, an herb called epazote that’s used in soups, and a range of chili peppers.
Eliosa’s family also runs a restaurant downtown called La Cocinita at 177 Park St.
In her store, she focuses on providing fresh fruit and vegetables.
In an unusual move for a Hill corner store, she sells no cigarettes.
“I have the license, but I don’t want to,” she explained. She said she doesn’t want any problems, nor does she want kids coming in the store trying to buy tobacco.
Eliosa has made some changes in response to the robberies. Besides hiring guards, she hung up a sign that reads “NO MASK ALLOWED!!”
She said she thinks the robber kept coming back because he knew no one was calling the police. Now — after he knows they’re on the lookout for him, and police are too — she said she hopes the problem subsides.
“We hope he won’t come back,” she said.
She resumed serving two women on WIC, the federal subsidy for low-income Women, Infants and Children. She picked up two gallon jugs of milk and began to tally the bill.
“You forgot the tortillas,” she said, pointing to her left. The woman grabbed a package from the shelf and finished checking out.
As she walked out, Eloisa’s hired help stood nearby in a patch of sunshine, humming and keeping an eye on the street.