UPDATED: Good Day Cafe Victim of Armed Robbery

UPDATED: 12:30 p.m., Feb. 7

Friday night had been relatively quiet at Good Day Café. As the shift manager, Vinnie Burkhardt decided the close up around 9 p.m.

The last customer left out of the locked front door around 9:15 p.m. 

“He must have saw everybody was gone,” Burkhardt said.

Only Burkhardt, one server and a few bakers were still left in the popular Golden Valley restaurant when a man wearing an open ski mask and carrying a handgun walked in through the unlocked back door.

“He just ran up with the gun and said ‘let’s go to the safe, let’s go to the safe,’” Burkhardt said. "So that’s what we did.”

Burkhardt says he opened the safe, as trained, for the armed robber who grabbed an undisclosed amount of money and ran out.

“I thought 'Give him the money and get him out of here before he hurts anybody.'” Burkhardt recalled. "There’s not much you can do when it happens. If someone wants the money, they’re going to get the money.”

Burkhardt described the robber to police as a black male, between 5 feet 8 and 5 feet 10 inches, and wearing a dark jacket and ski mask. Golden Valley Police Chief Stacy Altonen says an armed robbery of this kind is unusual in Golden Valley. Burkhardt says, even so, Good Day Café has already made a few changes to better protect its employees.

“We’re keeping the back door locked at night, we don’t open the back door at all now,” he said. "We’re going to take some other precautions as well."

Police are still looking for the person of interest. Anyone with information can call the Golden Valley Police Department at (763) 593-8079.