Shaw's Employees Held Hostage in Early Morning Robbery

An unidentifed armed male took several employees hostage before robbing Shaw's Supermarket on Trader's Way early Wednesday.

According to Detective Sgt. Stephen Bona of the Salem Police Department, the episode began at approximately 4:45 a.m., when two employees were entering the building to open the store.

Bona said a male "all dressed in black, black ski mask, black hood, everything in black," rushed up behind the employees, ordered them in the store with a black handgun and demanded they open the safe.

Employees said they didn't have access to the area of the store where the safe is located, at which point the man ordered them to put their cell phones on a counter. Then, he demanded they go into a vehicle in the parking lot and wait until employees with keys to the office area arrived.

Two other employees who arrived later were "ordered...to go in the same car as the other two," Bona said. When a worker with access to the office showed up, Bona said the man "herded" all five employees into the store.

When employees were unable to access the safe, the man made workers "empty the registers," before forcing them into a back room and leaving the store with an undisclosed amount of money.

Bona said the entire ordeal lasted approximately 50 minutes.

"I wouldn't want to go through that," Bona said. "It's kind of brazen in the fact that it lasted long," he explained. "You generally don't see that type of thing."

Bona said officials have found an abandoned car in Swampscott that they believe was used in the crime. The car is currently being processed.

Anyone with information on the crime is encouraged to call the Police Department's Criminal Investigation Division at 978-745-9700.