Provo City Police released video surveillance recording Tuesday of an aggravated robbery at Wynnsong Theater in Provo that took place just after midnight Sunday morning.
Police responded to a call reporting that a male entered the theater stating he was going to burn the place down.
[/media-credit]
The device only caused minor damage to the floor. The suspect used the distraction in order to gain access to the money received that night by the theater. No one was hurt by the device.
Kyle Grieder, 22, from Murietta, Calif., was at the theater when the alarm was set off.
“I was just sitting in the theater waiting for a movie to start,” he said. “Then all of the sudden the emergency lights start flashing and an alarm was going off and a robotic voice said please exit the theater, remain calm.”
Grieder said most of the people in the theater were in no hurry to leave.
“No one was really getting up,” he said “Then an employee came in and asked everyone to exit through the outside exits and not through the lobby.”
Grieder said that no one was really sure what happened until a manager came out and explained there was a bomb threat.
“We waited for about 30 minutes, and they offered us free passes to come back another day,” he said.
Phillip Fernberg, 22, also from Murietta, Calif., was at the theater with Grieder.
“It was just like any other Saturday night going to see a movie,” he said. “They didn’t turn the movie off, so we just figured it was a false alarm.”
Fernberg and Grieder both stayed around after the evacuation to see what had happened.
“The police came and eventually the K-9 unit and bomb squad,” he said. “They were investigating the area … everyone sat out there for a while waiting to hear from the police.”
Fernberg said they eventually found out what happened from the police and the theater employee who saw what happened.
The surveillance video shows the suspect going directly to the money and leaving the building. The suspect is currently still at large.
Don Osmond of the Shops at the Riverwoods, adjacent to the theater, said that although the theater is run independently of their shops, they want their shoppers to feel safe.
“We always have 24/7 security measures,” Osmond said. “We always want our merchants to feel safe and secure, we’ve maintained our security.”
Carmike Wynnsong Theaters was unable to be reached for comment.
According to a police news release, the suspect is described as a white male, thin build, wearing a jacket with some sort of logo on it and a derby-style hat.
Police are asking anyone with information about this case to contact Detective Bryan Soule at 801-852-6220.
