On the afternoon of June 4, 1987, 22-year-old Marquisa Kellogg was working at the Grand Slam Restaurant, a once-popular eatery in the Madisonville neighborhood of Cincinnati, Ohio. She had served cheese coneys to two men in their early 20s whom she considered friends. She said she knew them “from the neighborhood.” Marquisa and the two customers exchanged pleasantries. There was no reason for Marquisa to suspect that this day would be any different than any other workday at the restaurant, but according to newspaper accounts from 1987, it all went wrong when the two men walked up to the cash register. The men had a brazen plan to rob Marquisa’s cash register. When they approached Marquisa, one of the men pulled a weapon. Marquisa took one look at the robber’s weapon and fled from her post at the open cash register. When she regained her composure and returned to the cash register, she found that it was short by $25 and called the police.
Police arrived at the restaurant, spoke with Marquisa, and began interviewing other customers. Police struggled to find witnesses to the crime. Upon hearing Marquisa scream, customers turned toward the cash register and saw her run away, but no one actually saw either of the men take money from the cash register. Was this part of the plan? Did the robbers intentionally steer the other customers’ attention onto the fleeing cashier and away from the cash register to enable them to quickly snatch some money? Was this their grand slam?
Marquisa later said the police failed to take the robbery seriously. You see, rather than using a weapon that most people would normally expect a robber to use, such as a gun or knife, this robber used a much smaller weapon which was only about an inch-and-a-half long. The weapon that the robber used to frighten Marquisa away from her cash register long enough to take money from it was a harmless six-legged winged insect called a Cicada.
In an interview in 2021, Marquisa said the robbery at the Grand Slam Restaurant which received national news coverage had been blown out of proportion. She said it had all been a prank gone wrong, but her register was still short $25. Police made no arrests in this case.
Sources:
1. Wilmington News-Journal, June 5, 1987, p.1.
2. News Journal, June 6, 1987, p.12.
3. The Cincinnati Enquirer, June 19, 2021, p.A5.
For the latest local news, subscribe FOR FREE to the Lincoln Parish Journal and receive an email each weekday morning at 6:55 right to your inbox.
Just
CLICK HERE
to sign up.
