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Robbery prompts one Albuquerque West Side store to keep door locked

By Maggie Shepard
Friday, February 8, 2008

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Before Jan. 22, the tinkling door chimes alerting the Merle Norman Cosmetics staff of an entering customer made them look up with rosy lips asking, "How can I help you?"

Not anymore.

Now the store has a sign on its door reading, "Due to recent robberies in the area, we are keeping this door locked."

Though police say the number of calls for help in the busy shopping center northwest of Paseo del Norte and Coors Boulevard was actually steady from 2006 through 2007, staff at the Merle Norman store aren't taking any chances.

The store was robbed at gunpoint Jan. 12. A man wearing a hooded sweatshirt and sunglasses stood waiting for a consultant to finish a makeover so he could purchase some lip gloss for his girlfriend, said one staff member who didn't want to give her name.

Instead of making the purchase, he pointed a gun at the clerk and demanded the store's cash while seven customers and employees and two small children watched. He ran.

The neighboring store Tuesday Morning was robbed at gunpoint just 10 days later. That robber also ran.

In the fall of 2007, the nearby video game store was robbed, prompting the Albuquerque Police Department's SWAT team to descend on the center.

More recently, the police command sent out an alert to area residents and customers to lock their vehicles and watch for suspicious people in the busy store parking lots after a series of smash-and-grab auto burglaries in broad daylight.

And on Monday, the Big 5 Sporting Goods store was burglarized overnight and several rifles were stolen.

Together, the incidents make the Merle Norman staff nervous, but they have recently started leaving the door unlocked more often.

"We keep the sign up just in case we feel like locking it," said one employee, who also did not want to give her name for safety reasons.

She was in the store when it was robbed and said she and a colleague immediately were suspicious of the man who eventually pulled the gun.

If a man with a similarly rough appearance were to come to their door when it was locked, the employees said they'd tell him through the glass that he couldn't come in and that they were sorry if he was offended but he could get lip gloss at Target.

When Capt. Conrad Candelaria learned of the Merle Norman door sign Thursday, he sent out his crime prevention team to talk to them.

"We went there to give them recommendations how to prevent this from happening again," Candelaria said. "We're trying to avoid the perception of fear, and considering the dynamics of the area and the volume of traffic there, there is a relatively a low volume of calls."

According to police documents, so far in 2008, police have been called to the shopping plaza eight times, including once for shoplifting, for the two robberies and for two false alarms. During year to date in 2007, there were 12 calls for service, including four alarms, three vandalisms, two suspicious people, one forgery and two other calls.

Candelaria said undercover officers were using bait cars — normal-looking cars wired with surveillance and automatic shut-off — to watch the plaza area.

And he's paired with the District Attorney's Office staff to speak to neighborhood associations about protecting their property at home and while shopping.

"Honestly, the first line of defense against any crime lies with every single citizen," Candelaria said. "They always have to be conscientious and aware of their surroundings."