Armed gang robs Causeway restaurant

Four robbers stormed into Ed's Seafood Shed waving guns, including a military-style rifle, just before the Causeway restaurant closed for the night Friday, police and a co-owner confirmed Monday.

"All four had on all-black clothing with masks," said Spanish Fort Police Chief David Edgar. "They basically took over the building."

The restaurant was empty except for 11 employees during the robbery that lasted less than five minutes, he said.

The manager was the only employee injured; one of the men hit him on the head with a handgun, said Barbara Bridges, who owns the restaurant with her husband, Ed. The manager was treated at a local hospital and released.

The robbers carried what employees described as a semi-automatic long rifle, a shotgun and two handguns, Edgar said.

About 9:50 p.m. Friday, the four men came up the restaurant's back stairs that lead to the kitchen, said Bridges, who had left with her husband about 30 minutes earlier.

A man stepped from the kitchen to the dining room, and "told everyone to get down," Bridges said. Employees didn't initially see a gun.

The restaurant bartender tackled the man, and the manager jumped on top, Bridges said.

"Then the next thing that they knew, they looked over to the left and saw employees lying on the floor in the front of the fryer," and a man emerged with what appeared be an assault rifle, she said.

"They got off the guy on the floor and put their hands up," she said.

The robbers appeared to be familiar with the restaurant, even tracking down employees in a storage area and a restroom, Bridges said. Eight employees were forced to lie in a small area between the fryer and a breading table in the kitchen, she said.

At least two of the men took the cashier, the bartender and the manager to the office to open the safe. One of the men struck the manager in the head because he wasn't moving fast enough, Edgar said.

"We keep very little money in the restaurant," Bridges said, declining at the advice of police to disclose the amount taken. "Our main thing is that our employees are safe. It is hard for us to see people that we care about go through this."

The men took money and left.

The manager received seven staples at Thomas Hospital in Fairhope, Bridges said. The manager returned to the restaurant that night to speak to investigators, she said.

Bridges hopes that drivers on the Causeway might have seen the robbers speeding out of the parking lot, she said.

"My main concern is that the community keep an eye out, so that it doesn't happen to anyone else," she said. "It was horrible."

Anyone with information about the robbery is asked to call the Spanish Fort Police Department at 251-626-4914.