Cops looking for man in West Philly cafe holdups

Police are looking for a man who robbed a café in West Philly at gunpoint Monday afternoon and may also be responsible for the holdup of another shop last week.

Cops released surveillance video that shows the suspected robber, who wore a mask when he held up the café, walking outside without the mask on prior to the robbery.

Police say he later donned a black ski mask and went into the Green Line Café, on Lancaster Avenue near Powelton, just before 4:30 p.m. Monday. The man pointed a handgun at the cashier, police said, and demanded money, saying, "If everyone does as I say, no one will get hurt."

He took money from the register and fled north on 37th Street, police said.

A few days prior, on April 26, a man with the same committed a gunpoint robbery at another Green Line Café location, on Locust Street near 44th.

He's described as white, in his mid-20s, 5 feet 9 with a medium build, brown hair and a thin mustache. He wore a gray hooded sweatshirt and blue jeans during the Monday afternoon robbery and was carrying a black semiautomatic handgun.

Tipsters should contact the Southwest Detective Division at 215-686-3183 or call the police tip line at 215-686-8477.