Hodgepodge Coffeehouse, a locally owned shop that first opened in East Atlanta, will temporarily close its Reynoldstown location after an armed robbery left an employee traumatized and without a car.
The robbery took place Thursday just before 5 p.m. when the shop at 1 Moreland Avenue was scheduled to close, an Atlanta police spokesman confirmed in an email to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. A man wearing a black leather jacket and a black-and-white plaid winter hat with earflaps entered the shop and demanded cash while brandishing a gun, police said.
According to a GoFundMe page set up for the employee who was the primary victim of the robbery, the man “was physically violent with her” before he took her car keys and drove away. Atlanta police confirmed they were searching for the woman’s car, a red Mitsubishi Galant with the license plate RXV4966.
“Thank God she wasn’t seriously physically harmed, but the experience has been traumatic for her and I just want to help her in any way I can,” the woman’s sister wrote on the fundraising page. “There will be expenses that we (her family) can’t help her, with so absolutely any donations are appreciated.”
In three days, the GoFundMe page has raised more than $4,500.
Hodgepodge has been keeping followers informed about the robbery with frequent, detailed social media posts. After repeatedly thanking the community for its support, a statement on the coffee shop’s Facebook page said, “We’re shaken up, but we’re okay. And we’re not going to let this incident cast a shadow on 10 years of community.”
The statement said the Reynoldstown location would remain closed indefinitely as “the city addresses the systemic issues that have been raised dozens of times over the last three years about that corridor of Moreland.”
According to the coffee shop, a CVS pharmacy about two miles away was robbed earlier in the week by a man fitting the same description. Atlanta police would not confirm that the suspects in both robberies were the same man, but security camera images from both incidents show a man wearing the same distinctive winter hat. The comparison photos were originally collected and posted by ATL Scoop before they were shared by Hodgepodge.
While the Reynoldstown location remains closed, the coffee shop is continuing to grow and recover from the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. The local chain’s East Atlanta and Decatur locations will restart in-person dining in February, and a market will open at the Decatur location as well, Hodgepodge said in a statement.
“Thank you again for how much you have rallied around us these last few days,” the statement said. “Our biggest concern was our team member being okay and trying to make them whole again as best we can.”
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