Man did not rob Oakland restaurant despite admitting to it, police say

PITTSBURGH — Charges against a man who told police he robbed the Jimmy John's restaurant in Oakland last week have been dropped, police said Thursday.

The man was arrested Wednesday after a University of Pittsburgh police officer, who believed he looked like the suspect, found him to be in possession of drug paraphernalia.

During questioning, police showed the man surveillance photos from the Oct. 18 robbery. Police said the man said the photos were of him and “provided other details about the crime that were only known to detectives.”

He was charged with robbery and possession of drug paraphernalia, but those charges were dropped after investigators determined he was not the robber.

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Police are still investigating the robbery at the restaurant on Forbes Avenue and continue to search for the person responsible.

During the robbery, a man leaned over the counter, said he had a gun and demanded all the money in the register before he ran out of the restaurant, police said.

The robbery happened about 6:20 p.m. on Oct. 18. The robber got away with an undisclosed amount of cash.

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The robbery prompted the University of Pittsburgh Police Department to issue a crime alert.

“It's bold, definitely bold. I feel like that's a time people are out eating getting food. That's a big time for students to be going out and grabbing a meal. They're still studying, on their way home from class, so I feel like that would have put a lot of lives in danger,” Sabrina Bender, a junior at Pitt, said.

Cox Media Group