NORCROSS, GA (CBS ATLANTA) -
Thanh Thai thought a man who walked into her office and handed her a note was lost and just looking for directions.
"He kept pointing at the paper," Thai said.
He would not leave until she read it. Thai broke into a sweat when she read the frightening message.
"The last sentence says, ‘Give me your money,'" Thai said.
The man tried to rob Thai in the middle of the afternoon at the busy Carter Oak Shopping Center on Jimmy Carter Boulevard.
Thai was one of two people who work at the Shopping Center the man attempted rob. In both cases, the criminal walked away with nothing.
Thai, who prepares taxes at the Loc Thai accounting office, was nervous but kept calm and told the would-be robber that she did not have what he was demanding.
"I played tough, I said, ‘I work with paper, I don't deal with cash,'" Thai said.
The criminal grew frustrated and left, but he did not stop there. He walked next door to the Nguoi Dep gift shop and handed a woman who works there a note as well. But this time the thief wrote that he had a gun and he would kill if she did not comply with his demands.
"He's implying he has a gun, yes, he's dangerous," said Cpl. Edwin Ritter, with the Gwinnett County Police Department.
The store employee acted like she did not understand English, police said. The criminal grew nervous, got into a car and took off empty-handed.
"It's dumb no matter what, but he did what he did and it is a crime, and he's going to be accountable for it," Ritter said.
Thai could not understand why that criminal chose her place, a business that does not have large amounts cash.
"By some reason, I thought he (went) into the wrong place," Thai said.
Investigators identified the criminal as 43-year-old Alex McCray.
McCray was last seen driving an older model white Cadillac with custom chrome rims and Georgia license plate number BYU-7953, Ritter said.
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