Portage Police are investigating the robbery on Saturday of South Shore Liquors 2 at 5454 Central Ave.

According to police, at 10:47 p.m. the clerk was counting her drawer when a male subject wearing a ski mask entered the store and ordered her onto the ground. He then removed the money from a white plastic bucket on the counter used for charity donations, grabbed the cash from the already opened register drawer, and on his way out of the business took the store’s cordless telephone.

The clerk called 911 approximately two minutes later with her cell phone.

Police did not disclose the amount stolen in the robbery.

A K-9 unit with the Porter County Sheriff’s Police followed a track westbound on Central Ave., through a couple of backyards, until losing the scent between Dombey Road and Hickory Street, police said.

Surveillance footage shows a man of stocky build wearing a black ski mask and gloves, a gray sweat shirt, and blue jeans. The clerk advised police that the man’s voice was not familiar, although he “spoke with a deep voice as if he was trying to hide the sound of his actual voice.”

Posted 12/10/2012