The Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office was looking Friday for a man who held up a Metairie doughnut shop wearing a pillowcase with eyeholes cut out and armed with a laser pointer, authorities said.
The robber walked into Tastee Donuts at 4301 Veterans Memorial Blvd. on Tuesday about 1:30 a.m., a Sheriff's Office report said.
Behind the counter was a 61-year-old Metairie woman. The robber waved a red laser pointer at her and demanded money from the safe, threatening to kill her if she didn't comply, the woman said Friday.
"I was very frightened," she said. "I have heart trouble, and it really upset me."
A second employee told a deputy that the man had flashed the laser at him also, the report said. The woman unlocked the safe and handed the money to the robber, who then ran south on Houma Boulevard, the report said.
Other than possibly damaging the retina of the eye, laser pointers can't cause any injury, said Kristen Dean, spokeswoman for East Jefferson General Hospital. But criminals use the pointers to trick people into believing the pointers are attached to something deadly such as a gun, said Ernest Davis, sales manger at Lasermate Group Inc., a California manufacturer of laser pointers.
"There is a built-in fear. When someone sees that dot come on them, they think they have a laser sight on them," Davis said.
http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/metro/index.ssf?/base/news-7/110637885390220.xml
The robber walked into Tastee Donuts at 4301 Veterans Memorial Blvd. on Tuesday about 1:30 a.m., a Sheriff's Office report said.
Behind the counter was a 61-year-old Metairie woman. The robber waved a red laser pointer at her and demanded money from the safe, threatening to kill her if she didn't comply, the woman said Friday.
"I was very frightened," she said. "I have heart trouble, and it really upset me."
A second employee told a deputy that the man had flashed the laser at him also, the report said. The woman unlocked the safe and handed the money to the robber, who then ran south on Houma Boulevard, the report said.
Other than possibly damaging the retina of the eye, laser pointers can't cause any injury, said Kristen Dean, spokeswoman for East Jefferson General Hospital. But criminals use the pointers to trick people into believing the pointers are attached to something deadly such as a gun, said Ernest Davis, sales manger at Lasermate Group Inc., a California manufacturer of laser pointers.
"There is a built-in fear. When someone sees that dot come on them, they think they have a laser sight on them," Davis said.
http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/metro/index.ssf?/base/news-7/110637885390220.xml