Subway manager punched, robbed at gunpoint at SW Side sandwich shop: EXCLUSIVE

CHICAGO (WLS) -- A Far Southwest Side Subway restaurant was robbed at gunpoint early Monday morning, Chicago police and a manager said.

The robbery left part of the restaurant in shambles. The register was stripped bare and the night manager was left terrified.

Dinesh Kumar Patel recounted his overnight ordeal while working alone at the sandwich shop near 63rd and Natchez.

"On the younger side. They were wearing all black. They had masks, and they both had weapons," Patel said.

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After two armed men walked in, Patel said, one of the robbers put a gun to his head, demanding cash.

"'Hurry up! Take the, give the money! Hurry up. Open the register and to give the money,'" Patel recalled them saying.

After swiping hundreds of dollars from the register, Patel said, the thieves demanded he open a safe, but he didn't have the passcode.

"So, he punched me here, near the ear, and one punch here. So, two times he punched me," Patel said.

The men then left, but not before taking Patel's personal cash and phone.

Though the robbery was apparently caught on video, the thieves stole the restaurant's security camera system, which was in a back room.

Despite being punched multiple times, Patel said he wasn't seriously injured.

This is the second time he's been robbed, he said, in about a year.

Area One detectives are investigating.

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