A masked gang have tied up Co-op workers in Croydon just two weeks after the same supermarket chain was targeted in Stoneleigh.
Three men in dark coloured masks or balaclavas entered a Co-op in Godstone Road, Kenley, as staff began to open the shop at 6am on Tuesday, August 27.
The men assaulted a shop worker and forced three of them into an office where they were tied up. Robbers made off with a cash box and a victim's phone.
Croydon police are keeping an "open mind" as to whether the robbery is linked to a raid on a Co-op in Stoneleigh in which staff were also tied up and had their phones stolen so they could not call 999.
At 9.50pm on August 14 three men in balaclavas raided the Co-op in The Broadway. They fled with cash and cigarettes after tying up the two staff and are thought to have made a getaway in a dark vehicle from Dell Lane.
In both raids the trio of robbers were black.
In the wake of the Croydon raid, police are searching for men described as about 5ft 4ins, 5ft 8ins and 5ft 11ins.
After the Stoneleigh robbery a man from a nearby takeaway in The Broadway, who asked not to be named, said: "Three men came in balaclavas, all wearing black, and just basically tied them up.
"It was three on two. They took their cell phones so they couldn’t call out."
Anyone with information should call police on 101 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.
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