A man entered at least two Capitol Hill shops earlier this month and used a request to exchange a $1 bill for four quarters to gain access to their cash registers before dashing off with the cash.

• Four Quarters Incident 1: On Friday the 19th, a man walked into 10th Ave’s Cafe’s Dharwin just after the northern Capitol Hill coffee shop opened for the day. According to the SPD report, the white male was “dressed like a construction worker in blue jeans and a light gray pullover sweater.” The employee working that morning told police the man pulled out a dollar bill and asked her for change. As she opened the register, the man pushed her away and then walked out of the coffee shop and fled south on 10th Ave, making off with about $200, according to the employee. The report says SPD could not recover any fingerprints at the scene.
• Four Quarters Incident 2: The next day, a man made off with a ‘handful of bills’ after robbing a restaurant near the 1500 block of Broadway around 10 PM. According to the SPD report, the man entered the restaurant, held up a $1 bill and asked for four quarters. When the woman working the register opened the till, the man came around the counter, pushed her aside and made off with the cash. The report said the man left the dollar behind but no fingerprints could be collected. The restaurant did have video surveillance, according to the report.

We have not yet had the opportunity to ask SPD public information officers about these incidents and the status of the investigation. The information was gathered from the department’s public media reports released earlier this week.