Gilroy
– Teresa Quintero trembled as the man aimed his gun at her,
demanding cash. The register at the Pink Elephant Bakery held only
a few hundred dollars – most of it in small bills, the sums handed
over for a cupcake or piece of Mexican bread.
Gilroy – Teresa Quintero trembled as the man aimed his gun at her, demanding cash. The register at the Pink Elephant Bakery held only a few hundred dollars – most of it in small bills, the sums handed over for a cupcake or piece of Mexican bread. But the robber’s accomplice took it all, cleaning out the register as the first man brandished his gun at her. On the floor, Quintero’s female coworker lay, terrified.
“You think of your family first,” Quintero said in Spanish. The Gilroy woman has worked at Pink Elephant for a year and three months. “I was so afraid … We gave them all we had.”
It was 8:15pm Monday night when the two men walked into the bakery 340 E. 10th St., Unit E, and robbed the bakery at gunpoint. Police described the first suspect as a 30- to 35-year-old man, 5-feet, 6-inches tall, 165 pounds, Hispanic, wearing a black baseball cap; the second as a 30- to 35-year old man, 5-feet, 10-inches tall, 180 pounds, Hispanic, wearing a black baseball cap and black jacket. A third, undescribed man, drove the two men away in a white four-door sedan, leaving Quintero and her coworker shaken.
“They called me right after it happened,” said operations manager Johanna Meza. “They’d already called the cops. I told them to just close up, and wait for the police.”
The robbery is the first crime to strike the Pink Elephant Bakery, Meza said. Gilroy Police Sgt. Jim Gillio said there were no other incidents at the 10th Street bakery this year, and that the robbery isn’t part of a discernible crime trend.
The Gilroy bakery is one of three Pink Elephant stores owned by the Meza family of San Jose, and has operated for at least a decade.
The chain’s flagship store in San Jose opened in 1975. Over the years, the Mezas have experienced multiple burglaries at their Morgan Hill store, but never anything in Gilroy.
“We don’t leave much cash in the register,” Meza said. “We’re shocked every time this happens.”
The financial loss isn’t major, she added, but the emotional impact is. Meza told Quintero and her coworker to take the next two days off, to recover.
“I’m afraid to go back to work,” Quintero said. “I don’t know if there are others, who will come and demand money … I’m very afraid, but I have to go.”
The robbery is under investigation.
Anyone with information about the incident may call Sgt. Jim Gillio at 846-0347.
