ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – A local tea shop hasn’t been in their Uptown location for a full year, and so far they’ve been robbed twice this month. 

Last weekend, surveillance video showed a man wearing a beanie and a face mask inside the store. At first, he appears to be a customer making conversation with the cashier, even browsing the empty store for a bit. But things take a sudden turn when the man pulls out a knife and demands money out of the cash register.

“I felt for my team, just bad that they had to deal with that, because it’s very scary,” said Bailey Riddle, owner of Old Barrel Tea Company.    

This is not the first time their Uptown location has been robbed, a similar robbery played out on April 1. Riddle says there’s a possibility both incidents may be connected. 

“I think there’s definitely a potential that the incidents are connected. That the thief who robbed us on the first got confident that they could do it again and came back in,” Riddle said.

Riddle says they’ve increased security since the first incident and will continue to make improvements, even getting their neighbors involved. 

“So, something that we’re going to do with our Uptown community is start a group messaging system. So that if anyone makes anyone uncomfortable in Uptown or does anything scary, it’s not gonna be perpetuated throughout the plaza. But it’ll be stopped right there, so we all know what to look out for, and we can be more prepared,” Riddle said. 

Riddle says the shop will also go cashless to further prevent incidents like this from happening. She hopes the messaging system will help in the long run. 

“Even though it’s a really terrible situation that it is bringing us together to our neighbors helping us build more of a community there,” said Riddle.