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Shoppers Concerned After Worker Mugged At Gunpoint Outside Roosevelt Field Mall

GARDEN CITY, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) -- Shoppers on Long Island are on edge after a restaurant worker at the Roosevelt Field mall was mugged at gunpoint in the parking lot.

Police are searching for the pistol-packing woman who pulled off the robbery, CBS2's Jennifer McLogan reported.

It happened just after 9 p.m. Tuesday -- closing time at the landmark mall. A 25-year-old employee just finished her evening shift, her purse filled with cash from her night's work.

She walked toward her car in the mall parking lot when a woman with a gun came up from behind, police said.

"She produced a handgun, confronted our victim and demanded money," Nassau County police Detective Vincent Garcia said. "Our victim sees the handgun. She complies."

Security officers responded immediately. But the armed robber had fled into the night with $110 from the victim.

The mall worker was not physically injured. She described the suspect as being black, standing about 6 feet tall, weighing around 250 pounds, having shoulder-length black hair and wearing a dark blue T-shirt, light-colored pants and a dark baseball cap.

Shoppers said man, woman or child, someone with a gun at a mall spells trouble.

"I'd probably give her whatever she asked," one man said.

"It's so close to where we live. It's kind of tough to swallow it," another man said.

Police said crime at the mall is rare.

Cops are pouring over surveillance video from parking lots and parking garages. They are not ruling out that the supposedly female suspect could have been a man wearing a wig.

Mall management stated that safety is its No. 1 priority and would not reveal enhanced security procedures that are in place.

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