He was reportedly trying to steal refillable cups, but couldn't locate them and just took the cash instead.

I agree with David G. Rochester and Rochester Hills must be an easy target.

It's true that our policy is to only include a suspect's race when it may aid in the capture of the suspect. In this case, having only the height and estimated age of the suspect is not enough for race to help ID them.
That's the policy as it stands right now; I follow it. But I'm open to debate it, and I would be happy to pass the feedback on to my managing editors.

Bob, one of the articles this summer about the robbery/smash and grab in Lucido's didn't state the race of the robber and I believe that Kristin (I think I remember this right and apologize if I have it wrong) stated that it was the Rochester Patch's policy to not report race if it wasn't important. Why?

They must be afraid of being labeled a racist. Race of a suspect is important if the community is told to report any information to the local police. If we don't know whether the suspect is white, hispanic, black, asian, etc, how do we know who to look for??

If a rabid dog is on the loose biting people and the Patch says, "look out for a small dog with rabies that is biting people", we are going to look at every small dog and wonder if that is the sick animal. If the Patch says, " look out for a rabid bassett hound that is biting people", it is much easier to find the dog.

It's not being racist to report the race of a suspect or an accurate description --- it helps the general public look out for them. The McDonald's suspect: 5' 5" tall and wearing a hoodie could be anybody. It's pretty poor reporting to not state ALL known information. Maybe someone will spot them and call police with an accurate description.

Some of us have been warning for years that the number of deputies that the citizens of Rochester Hills are willing to pay for is in-adequate.
According to FBI statistics-which are not an FBI recommendation but simply what various size communities in different regions of the U.S. through their governments believe the size of their police forces should be. The statistics for the 439 communities of 50,000 to 99,999 residents located in the Midwest region is an average of 84 sworn officers. Rochester Hills has 57 !!
Never forget that there are 168 hours in a week and no officer works 168 hours in a week. Also remember there are 32 square miles in Rochester Hills. I believe some, criminals are somewhat aware of those numbers.
In my opinion, crime will continue to get worse in Rochester Hills until the residents finally decide the free lunch is over and vote in favor of a significant police millage.

P.S. My son recently purchased a home in Bloomfield township where they have significantly more police AND fire/rescue personnel. Yes, their millage rate is higher but they seem to be willing to pay for adequate public safety

Could not agree more. Not just there at the same time--the hamburglar knew the guy WAS a courier, WITH money bags. This just sounds so shady.

Annie, it was Grimmace!!!!! Ronald is going to be mad!

Thirty years ago, I worked at a Wendy's. Every evening, amongst the late dinner crowd, the manager would leave the restaurant and get in line at the drive through. He was handed the bank deposit bags inside of Wendy's bags, as if he was given his meal. Simple, but very effective in not being pegged for a robbery. I can't believe McDonald's doesn't have some similar procedure in place. "Inside job"?? If it walks like a duck, looks like a duck...! Hopefully someone in the sheriff's office knows this too!

Hoodie AND hat.......screams BAD HAIR day to me! Perhaps Ronald had a bad perm, bad dye job or BOTH! ( too much purple eggplant dye......dont tell me Ronald has cataracts already).

An insider job.......of course, who would suspect Ronald?

nice

Carol, I'm still new to this area, moved here in 1960. I don't remember a Rochester Hills police department. Avon Township had one with black and white mid 60s Fords like Andy of Mayberry. But that was quite a while back.

Dumps...unfortunately.

The apartments on First Street and the apartments off Ludlow are known for frequent police calls and police activity. I spoke with the city manager about the unsightly condidtion of the buildings...I have no idea why this kind of landlord behavior is tolerated...but the City of Rochester's manager doesn't seem to want to do anything about it.

37 year old ----- bmx bike ---- winter....huh????????

The apartments on First Street near the cemetary are dumps. Broken windows, shutters falling off, torn screens, trash in the half dead shrubbery...

I must have been thinking about the apartments on 2nd street -- I think those are the nice one with the gated parking. You are right, the ones by the cemetary are dumpy and it would be nice if they were upgraded somehow.

It's not funny -- it's pathetic. Some of us are just making the point that crime seems to be on the rise in Rochester/Rochester Hills and it seems to be concentrated in the neighborhood of the low rent apartments. Take away the low rent areas and I bet a lot of the crime goes too.

Of all of the recent crime stories on Patch, how many have been from the "low rent" areas of Rochester/Rochester Hills? Saturday night: two men fighting in parking lot broken up by police taser, one man from Auburn Hills, one from Shelby. Theft from Rochester Hills Meijer, resident of Madison Heights. Attempted TV theft from KMart, resident of Pontiac. Jewelry store theft, Detroit resident. 3 teens rob a store in Rochester, residents of Belleville, Keego Harbor and Rochester. Even after we hear that many of these problems are caused by outsiders, we still want to point fingers at the renters. Is it your opinion that Rochester should be a gated community where only those who make over $75,000 a year need apply to live here?

Well Peter, given the plethora of nasty and bigoted comments I naturally assumed a pseudonym.
I’m still not convinced I’m wrong but I don’t expect so many nasty comments from easy to find identifiable people. You see long ago I lived in some of what you call “the dumpy” areas of Rochester Hills. I even lived in the trailer park off Avon east of John R. Now I have a hill top view of the Wyndgate golf course on two acres. NO subdivision rules for me. Far too many of your comments were way too abrasive to just sit by and not poke at you for them. I'm sorry if I offended you but you are hitting too close to home for me and some of my relatives. NONE of us are problems!

Thanks for the spelling lesson. My spelling IS pretty bad. My degrees are a BS in Engineering, MS in Engineering & MS in Management.....no spelling required for a degree in Engineering Sciences...just a lot of mathematics. : )

BTW -- totally agree in cleaning up ALL of the dumpy complexes in Rochester/Rochester Hills to help get rid of some of the crime. My wife has a great aunt that lives by that complex you are talking about and she is afraid to leave her doors open when she is at home. She keeps them locked at all times. It's a shame. You are also right about the sex-offenders. I have checked the MI sex-offender list there are a lot of people that live in the local "low rent" apartments. I hate to sound descriminatory (i know it is spelled wrong), but when you have apartments that rent for $500 to $800 per month in Rochester, you are going to get the wrong element moving in. I have stated before, that I know for a fact, that there are multiple families sharing a single bedroom apartment (2 or 3 single moms and 4-6 kids) at the Hamptons just so their kids can use RCS. They don't even pay property taxes.

BTW -- by "wrong element" I am not referring to race --- I mean things like: sex-offenders, ex-cons (serious crimes), people on welfare, people who really cannot afford this area, high-school dropouts, etc.

"wrong element" also means ILLEGAL immigrants (or as the Liberals refer to them as....undocumented aliens).

Peter, say hi to Stewie and Brian for me. If you know for a "fact" that multiple families are in single family dwellings... file a complaint. Turn them in to the school system! And since you like to play that “they don’t belong in my neighborhood” card… let me play mine. Stay south of Dutton. I’ve lost enough property value. I don't need another Quagmire out here.

ha-ha...real nice. If I hadn't heard that one many times over the past 10 or so years. Thanks for making fun of my name -- nice. You sound like one of my college professors, in grad school, who asked if "this was a joke" when my name appeared on the class list. Try giving your license to a police officer and he asks, "is this a joke". Thanks again......

BTW, I do live north of Dutton and keep my home up vey well. I don't think I would affect your property values in a negative way. I am actually trying to get a neighbor of mine to comply with the bi-laws in my sub and clean up his yard. He lives in a 4000+ sq ft home that he purchased as a forclosure and it has become the eyesore of the neighborhood.

Again, thanks much for making fun of my name. Really appreciate it. Have a nice day...

Some good people do need rent at $500.00 a month on a fixed income or would have no place to live- they helped build this community. I take exception that if you can only afford this type of housing you are a bad element as thats what it attracts, Not true. This has to do with screening of applicant and management taking care of the premise. I see both Rochester and Rochester Hills promoting for people in the 100+K range and that excludes a lot of seniors, a lot of young professionals, a lot of widows, a lot a families where a job was lost or a lesser paying job taken. Management of these apartments need to be given the strong message of what the rental agreement allows, and then clean up the premise. Heck, a neighbor turned us in for a 13 year old vine/plant support in our backyard-didn't like the way it looked over our fence....and without any communication from the City, we got a letter of violation during the holidays---lived in the house for 29 years--and yet, the apartments go untouched....hmmmmm...