Police arrested two men accused of stealing cash off a table at a State Street restaurant Wednesday afternoon.
Shortly before 1:15 p.m., Dymond Green, 19, and Donald Alford-Lofton, 18, entered Rising Sun Deli at 617 State St., where Green expressed an urgent desire to use the deli restroom, according to a Madison Police Department statement. Green provided the distraction for restaurant staff while Alford-Lofton took cash left by a customer from a nearby table top, the statement said. Both suspects then fled the scene, the statement said.
A deli worker, 22, pursued Alford-Lofton, the statement said. After catching up to him, the worker struggled to detain the suspect in an alleyway near the 400 block of North Frances Street until police arrived.
MPD spokesperson Joel DeSpain said based on the reports he has received, the employee was not injured.
Upon arrest, Alford-Lofton gave police a fictitious name and did not provide an address, the statement state. Fingerprint records, however, indicated that Alford-Lofton is wanted in Milwaukee for armed robbery.
DeSpain said it is more likely Alford-Lofton’s permanent residence is in Milwaukee.
A Madison parking enforcement officer witnessed the other suspect, Green, boarding a city bus after leaving the restaurant, DeSpain said.
“[He] saw somebody getting on the bus who matched the description of one of the two people he had heard over the police radio. He radioed in to dispatch … and then a police officer showed up, pulled the bus over and arrested the suspect who was on the bus,” DeSpain.
Green carried identification, but he claimed he recently moved to Madison from Chicago, so could not provide an address of residence, Despain said. The suspect recalled a street name, but he could not remember the specific address, he said.
Green also claimed he neither knew Alford-Lofton, nor was in the deli during the robbery, the statement said. The arresting officer viewed a surveillance video that showed both men entering and exiting the deli together.
Alford-Lofton was arrested for theft and obstructing while Green was arrested as a party to a crime of theft, according to the statement.
