Police are investigating a brazen armed robbery at a North Portland tavern.
On Sunday, September 10, a bartender at the Perch Bar & Grill, 7505 N. Lombard St., unlocked the door just after 11 a.m. to get ready for the day.
A man with a machete soon showed up. The intruder put the bartender in a headlock, held the weapon to the woman’s neck and forced her to open the cash register. He then took her over to a hidden safe.
He fled with what the Portland Police Bureau describes as a “significant amount of money.”
It was close to $50,000, according to a relative of the tavern’s owner. All in cash. Most of it from the safe.
The man held a machete to the bartender's neck, according to accounts of the robbery.
“It seems fishy he knew where the safe was,” said Vieng Oudom, the son-in-law of the Perch’s owner. “He forced [the bartender] to the safe and made her open it.”
Oudom said his mother-in-law, a South Korean immigrant, moved to Portland nearly 30 years ago. A single mother for years, she worked several jobs and saved as much money as she could, which she used to buy the Perch in 2006. Oudom said his mother-in-law, unnerved by the robbery, does not want to be publicly identified.
“She does not want to be a target again,” he said.
Oudom said so much cash was on hand because his mother-in-law had neglected to go to the bank for a while.
The Perch has surveillance cameras in and outside of the establishment.
The robbery apparently was well-planned, according to the bar owner's son-in-law.
“It does not look like it was a one-man show,” said Oudom. “It seems like a three-man job. The bartender said the man was texting someone. Another photo shows a man on a phone, and someone else was right outside keeping an eye on the street.”
Police said the robber with the machete has three dots on his face, apparently tattoos, and a tattoo of a clock on the outside of his left hand. They said anyone with information about the robbery should contact Detective Hilary Scott at hilary.scott@police.portlandoregon.gov.
“This place was my mother-in-law’s baby,” said Oudom. “No one was hurt. That’s the important thing. But she put a lot of her life savings into this place.”
— Tom Hallman Jr
503-221-8224; thallman@oregonian.com; @thallmanjr
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