Greenfield businesses fed up with crime after string of armed robberies

A rash of armed robberies in Greenfield has some businesses worried about security. On Wednesday night, police and the business community came together to talk about crime prevention strategies. But out of the more than 40 businesses in Greenfield, only 10 people showed up.

“It’s not an issue to everyone until it happens to them,” said store employee Manual Barron.

Barron works at La Esperanza Market. His store was one of the businesses hit during a string of armed robberies in January.

“It was out of hand, there was a robbery every other day. My cashiers didn’t want to work in the afternoon. It was pretty bad for two weeks,” said Barron.

Police Chief Adele Frese said the department is doing all it can to reach out to businesses and get shop owners and employees more involved.

“We have set up a text messaging system. We have also created informational fliers inviting them to these meetings. As well we have advertised on our social media sites,” said Frese.

And Frese said she’s impressed with the group that showed up.

“What I really liked was when they started contributing ideas to influence neighboring businesses,” she said.

One business owner challenged the others to bring at least one person to the next meeting. And for store employees like Barron, he said that’s a good start.

“If everybody went out and got maybe two or three guys here, that would be perfect,” said Barron.