Update: Papa John's Robber Still at Large

Two employees were working in  on Bloomfield Avenue Tuesday morning when Caldwell Police say a man came in and robbed the restaurant at gunpoint.

Police are still looking for the suspect, who is believed to have fled on foot and headed north on Central Avenue. Caldwell Police set up a perimeter in order to contain the suspect and went from house to house searching yards, telling area residents to remain inside and be cautious.

The suspect is being described as a white male estimated to be 6-foot, 2-inches tall and wearing dark pants, dark shoes and a dark shirt, possibly a hoodie. The suspect was wearing black sunglasses and had a black cloth over his mouth at the time of the robbery, according to police.

The employees, a delivery person and a counter worker, were preparing an order with their backs to the entrances shortly after the restaurant opened at 11 a.m., when they heard a male voice say repeatedly, “get on the ground, get on the ground,” according to Caldwell Police Det. Sgt. Anthony Marta.

Marta said the victims did not know from which of the restaurant’s two Bloomfield Avenue entrances the man entered. They told police the robber was holding a gun and told the female employee to open the register and give him the cash. He then instructed her to open the safe under the counter from which she removed bills and rolled coins.

The robber took approximately $300 in cash as well as an HTC cell phone belonging to the female employee, which he swiped off the counter, and left the coins. Marta said the phone is valued at $600.

“He was only in the establishment a little over a minute,” Marta said.

Next door at American Shoe Repair, owner Joseph Frangella said he came outside when he noticed the police activity. Frangella said the male employee looked visibly shaken.

He said in the more than 20 years he has been in business at this location he has never experienced a robbery.

"Now, I'm scared," Frangella said.

North Caldwell Police and the Essex County Sheriff’s Department assisted in the search, which was called off around 2 p.m.

Story updated: August 2, 2011 at 7:08 p.m.