Police seeking Subway robber

Watertown police began searching late Saturday for a man they say robbed a clerk at the Subway shop at Watertown Center Plaza off Eastern Boulevard.

The suspect walked into the store about 8:25 p.m. and flashed something that could have been a weapon, although the clerk could not definitively identify the object, Sgt. Joseph R. Donoghue said.

"We're still trying to determine whether he was armed or not," he said. "The subject displayed something, but the description we're getting is still vague at this point."

The suspect left the store with an unidentified amount of money. The clerk, a young woman, was the only person in the store at the time of the robbery. She was not hurt.

The suspect is described as white, in his late teens or early 20s, and about 5 feet 7 inches tall with a stocky build. At the time of the robbery, he was wearing a red hooded sweatshirt and jeans and did not have distinguishable facial hair.

He fled on foot through the front entrance of the store and disappeared from sight.

"It's still unknown if he got into a car or not," the sergeant said.

A Clayton Police K-9 unit responded to the scene. The officer walked south with the dog, looping around the nearby McDonald's and Fastrac gas station at State Street and Eastern Boulevard. Shortly after the incident, police also were seen interviewing tenants at the East Hills apartment complex.

Sgt. Donoghue said a police officer who was around the corner from the scene when the call was dispatched did not see the suspect fleeing.

The sub shop is no stranger to thievery. An unarmed masked man robbed a lone clerk on Dec. 15, 2006. He walked away with more than $100 in hand, the shop's owner, J. Stuart Greene, said at the time of the robbery.

A message left at Mr. Greene's home Saturday night was not returned.

Anyone with information about the robbery or who might have seen the suspect near the store can call police at 782-2233.