A man armed with a rifle robbed a coin-operated laundromat in Paterson on Thursday night, threatening a worker who was in the middle of closing up before running off with cash from the register. Police say the suspect fled on foot, and as of Friday morning, investigators still had not released a description of him beyond the basic details of the holdup.
According to rlsmedia.com, police received a report of a robbery at a laundromat located at 85 Haledon Avenue at approximately 9:12 p.m. on October 8. The outlet reported that the suspect, described only as a male armed with a rifle, robbed the establishment before fleeing on foot toward North 5th Street.
A separate account from NJ.com places the incident at Haledon Avenue and North Fourth Street and reports that the man entered the laundromat around 8:40 p.m. while the worker was closing the business, then demanded money and made off with about $500 in cash from the register, according to police. A police spokesman reportedly told NJ.com the worker was closing the business when the man entered. The rlsmedia.com report, by contrast, said it was not immediately clear whether anyone was injured or what was taken during the robbery — a detail that remains unresolved between the two accounts.
Worker Was Not Hurt, Police Say
Per NJ.com's reporting, police said the worker was not hurt during the robbery and that no customers were present at the time. The man fled the laundromat after taking the cash, and no suspect description was available to police as of Friday morning, the outlet noted.
NJ.com's report adds that police are asking anyone with information to call the Paterson Police Department at 973-321-1111. The incident remains under investigation, per the same account, with no arrest or weapon recovery reported as of Friday.
Robberies Have Been Trending Down Citywide
The holdup comes even as Paterson has reported broader declines in certain violent crime categories this year. From June through August, robberies in the city fell 27%, from 102 to 74, compared with the same stretch the previous summer, according to the New Jersey Office of the Attorney General. A separate CompStat snapshot from the state attorney general's office lists 167 robberies and 752 aggravated assaults citywide for 2026 year-to-date.
Armed robberies at laundromats are not unique to Paterson. In February, two men were wanted in connection with a gunpoint robbery at a laundromat in Norwood, the Bronx, according to News 12 Bronx. And in 2017, a laundromat worker in Bellmawr, New Jersey, was stabbed during a robbery in which the attacker made off with the entire cash register, as reported by 6abc Philadelphia.
For now, Paterson investigators are still working the case with limited public details. Anyone with information about Thursday night's robbery is urged to contact the Paterson Police Department.
