By Casey Wheeless

Investigators believe there could be a  link between an armed robbery that happened late Tuesday night at a local restaurant and a robbery that occurred Saturday.

Lexington Police are searching for the armed man who entered The Pita Pit on South Limestone on Tuesday around 11:30 p.m., demanded money and fled. The Papa John’s on Nicholasville Road was robbed Feb. 14.

No arrests have been made as of 2 p.m. Wednesday, said Shannon Garner, a detective with Lexington Police.

The Pita Pit robbery suspect — who police say was armed with a revolver — took about $500 in cash from the cashier, said Ryan Veith, owner of The Pita Pit. He then fled south down Limestone on foot, in the direction of The Paddock.

The suspect is described as a white male with a “wrinkly” face in his 40s or 50s, said Robert Thomas, a Lexington Police public information officer. He was last seen wearing reading glasses, blue jeans and a gray hooded sweatshirt with red writing, possibly an East or West Jessamine High School softball logo.

According to The Pita Pit employees, the man followed an employee back into the restaurant after she had left to take out the trash and was re-entering the building. There were three restaurant employees working at the time of the robbery; none were hurt.

However, Veith said closing precautions and procedures are being reviewed at his store.

“The biggest concern is the workers’ safety,” Veith said.

Veith said he does not expect the incident will hurt business but hopes police find the man responsible.

After the robbery at The Pita Pit, UK Police Sgt. James Haubenreich said UK police helped Lexington police look for the suspect and patrolled areas of campus close to The Pita Pit, such as the North Campus dorms and Central Campus.

Lexington police called in the K-9 Unit in an attempt to track the man, but were unsuccessful, Thomas said. Police also tried to set up a perimeter around Pita Pit.

Between 1:30 and 2:30 a.m., employees at Jimmy John’s, Two Keys Tavern, Mellow Mushroom, Slice of Chicago, The Awkward Moose and McDonald’s — all located close to The Pita Pit — said they had not heard about the robbery. Some said they had seen police cars driving by or stopped on nearby roads.

A third-shift employee at Tolly Ho said the restaurant had been informed of the robbery by police and given a suspect description.

Around 2:45 a.m., Kernel reporters spotted a police officer posting campus crime bulletins on North Campus dorms. UK sent out a campus-wide e-mail and posted the crime bulletin on its Web site at about the same time.