Food-delivery drivers targeted by robbers in Richmond, Chesterfield

One of two Chinese-food delivery drivers robbed Monday in the Richmond area recounted his story yesterday.

Jack Chen was robbed in North Richmond about an hour and a half before a driver from another restaurant was assaulted and robbed outside a church in Chesterfield County.

Theirs were at least the third and fourth robbery incidents involving Chinese-food delivery drivers in the Richmond area in less than five months. The two earlier victims were killed.

Chen, a 31-year-old native of China, said he works about 11 hours a day, seven days a week, for Ho Ho Chinese Restaurant on East Laburnum Avenue. He has worked there about three months.

Yesterday, Chen told how he delivered an order of honey chicken wings, fried fish and two shrimp egg rolls to an apartment building in the 4100 block of North Avenue on Monday about 1:45 p.m.

A male who looked like a teenager was waiting outside and paid $11.20 for the food, Chen said. As Chen turned to leave, he saw another male with something over his face pointing a gun at him.

Chen said he raised his hands and the two men patted him down and took some cash and his iPhone. Chen said he wasn't assaulted. Police confirmed most of the details of Chen's account.

After reporting the robbery to police, Chen continued delivering food. Yesterday, he was working in the same vicinity.

Chen said he is being more careful but needs to continue working to support his children. "I have to," he said.

Monday's second robbery took place in a parking lot at Friendship Memorial Baptist Church on Hicks Road in Chesterfield.

A delivery driver from Fu Wah Chinese Restaurant was talking to a man about the food transaction in the parking lot when someone else hit the driver from behind with an unknown object, causing a gash on his head, police said. The injury was not considered life-threatening; police declined to identify the victim.

After the delivery driver was robbed of an undisclosed amount of money, he returned to the restaurant, where employees called police at 3:59 p.m., according to a police report. The attack had occurred about 45 minutes earlier, the report said.

Richmond police Capt. Harvey Powers said city investigators will be comparing notes with their counterparts in Chesterfield.

Chesterfield police Capt. Terry Patterson said he doesn't see any similarities in Monday's two robberies aside from the fact that both involved Chinese-food delivery drivers. He said it is "highly unlikely" that the robbers in North Richmond would have had time to travel across the river and set up the Chesterfield robbery outside the church in the 90 minutes between the two holdups.

The Richmond robbery involved two males, one wearing a bandanna on his face. The victim in the Chesterfield holdup saw only one male, and he wasn't wearing a bandanna. The victim was struck from behind by someone he didn't see, Patterson said. A gun was displayed in the Richmond robbery but not in the Chesterfield holdup.

Patterson said Chesterfield has had three delivery-driver robberies this year and has made arrests in two of them.

Anyone with information can call Crime Stoppers anonymously at (804) 780-1000.

In July, a Chinese-food delivery driver was shot to death in Richmond's Whitcomb Court public-housing complex.

In April on Easter night, a driver was killed in the 500 block of Lowell Street in Henrico County after making a delivery.

Monday's robbery in Richmond was the second in the 4100 block of North Avenue in about 36 hours.

At 1:40 a.m. Sunday, a male walking along the street was robbed at gunpoint by three males, police said. Stefan Lundy, 18, of the 500 block of Lincoln Avenue was arrested in that case, which remains under investigation, police said.

Contact Reed Williams at (804) 649-6332 or .

Contact Mark Bowes at (804) 649-6450 or .

Staff writer Joe Macenka contributed to this report.