Note to brain-dead Megastar: By allowing the announcement that $27,000 was stolen on a week night, you've just declared open hunting season on your managers and theatres. Nice going.

Note to brain-dead TV station: Reporting news doesn't require offering enticements to potential robbers. Send your news team back to journalism ethics class.

Now everybody knows the amount of money that can be there on a weeknight. It is never a good idea to disclose to anybody how much money (cash) is counted or physically at a location.

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Ken, read back in my much earlier posts in this thread. We are going over old ground again. We are going over old ground again. We are...

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If it is a choice between pissing off a police officer who more than likely won't do jack shit about finding and arresting the robber (been there, done that, got the t-shirt), or making the theatre less attractive to copycats, guess which choice wins?

You do what you want. Tell 'em at the outset how they walked into the break room (second door on the left) pointed a gun at a female employee, and used her to gain entrance to the managers office (third door on the left, no alarm) and used the combination 24 left 42 right 56 left back to 90 to open the safe. The news media can report that too.

Robberies are a threat to life. I have no latitude in my opinions on the subject. Until there is a law that prevents the disclosure of amounts stolen, Joe Friday can yell at me until he is blue in the face. "That information will have to be determined at a later time after a corporate audit, I cannot comment further."

Apologies in advance to Jerry: I'm not trying to stir anything up. Just asking.

The cashier, a 30 something woman, said. "I can't. It's not mine" The schocked robber demanded the money again and the cashier told him the same thing only louder. This got my Dad's attention. He could hear her through the wall(his office was next door). He came out to the foyer just in time to see the frustrated thief raise his hands above his head and curse. He then stormed out of the theatre. My Dad
then followed him outside. There was and still is a park accross the street from the theatre where there was usually a cop or two on the beat. Sure enough there were two cops nearby. My Dad yelled at the top of his lungs " OFFICERS" They heard and looked over at him as he pointed at the running thief ( still with gun in hand). The cops gave chase..guy threw is gun away..and they caught him. He got the spend th winter in a warm jail cell.

The issue is that detectives are trained to get as much information as possible as quickly as possible. It makes good sense, since people forget details over even short lengths of time, and insiders that might be party to the robbery get a chance to synch their stories. In doing their job, these detectives can get quite agressive and intimidating. They also have been known to lie about the consequences of not cooperating fully with them. None of this alters the facts that 1. a lot of the robbers never get caught, or are only caught incidental to another robbery, and 2. broadcasting the amount stolen is a sure-fire way to encourage copycats.

This CAN discourage a would be robber as well. The thief knows up front he will probably not get away with much.

According to local press reports, several people allegedly used (the manager's) keys to enter a Regal megaplex after closing time. Once inside they disabled the alarm and allegedly made off with the cash in the safe. Management called the cops and the cops questioned all the employees, who in turn fingered the suspects. The cops were able to recover most of the cash from the suspects' homes. Charged so far:

20-year-old man, ex-Regal employee -- burglary and theft. Some marijuana also was found with his cut of the money.

20-year-old man -- burglary and theft.

18-year-old woman, Regal manager -- conspiracy.

17-year-old girl, Regal employee -- receiving stolen property (some of the cash).

16-year-old girl -- burglary and theft.