Pizza Hut

Police are looking for two men who may have been involved in three armed robberies over the holiday weekend.The suspects robbed a Pizza Hut restaurant in the 3500 block of St. Johns Lane in Ellicott City Friday at 11:48 p.m., police said.Wearing white bandannas and white cloths over their faces, the men entered, one of them pulled a handgun and threatened employees while demanding cash. They then fled on foot with an undisclosed amount of money, police said.Less than an hour earlier, about 10:37 p.m., the same two men are believed to have robbed a High's store in the 6800 block of Cradlerock Way in Owen Brown in the same fashion.

A 29-year-old Silver Spring man has been charged in the armed robbery of an Elkridge restaurant in March. A fingerprint analysis linked him to the crime after his arrest in an unrelated incident in Washington last week, Howard County police said.Milton Townsend, of the 1700 block of East West Highway, was being held Friday without bond at the Howard County Detention Center. He has been charged with armed robbery, robbery with a deadly weapon, false imprisonment and related charges.Police are seeking a second man in the March 10 robbery of a Pizza Hut restaurant, said Howard County police spokesman Sgt. Steven Keller.

Fire alarm or sprinkler systems will be required in building additions under a revised ordinance approved by City Council.Such fire-prevention systems will be required not only in building additions, but also in existing structures, under the revision approved by the Taneytown Council Monday night on a 3-2 vote.Council members Jacquelyn J. Polk and Henry C. Heine Jr. dissented.Prior to that vote, Polk proposed that the council reject the revision.Although her motion was supported by Heine, it failed on a 2-3 vote.

For 50 years, Don Sekira has watched Howard County morph from a sleepy farming community into one of the nation's most affluent areas. The manager at Kendall Hardware store in Clarksville has seen plenty, but violent crime has been almost nonexistent. That's why Sekira was alarmed to learn that masked gunmen robbed the Pizza Hut restaurant next to the hardware store Sunday night - the second armed robbery of a business in the area in 10 days. "It's uncommon for Clarksville," Sekira said yesterday just before going on his lunch break at the store in the 12200 block of Clarksville Pike.

An outdated county liquor law could be deterring some national restaurant chains from moving to Carroll, two attorneys said Tuesday.Westminster attorney William B. Dulany said several national restaurant companies have told him they were interested in locating here but were stymied by liquor laws. He would not name the restaurants.Carroll liquor law prohibits "chain stores" from obtaining liquorlicenses."The law is arcane," said County Attorney Charles W. "Chuck" Thompson Jr.Liquor board chairman Earle H. Brewer said he does not oppose changing the law, which would have to be done through the state legislature.

Two armed men -- apparently thwarted in an attempt to rob a McDonald's in east Columbia Tuesday night -- stole an undisclosed amount of money from a nearby Pizza Hut restaurant about 35 minutes later, Howard County police said.Two men entered the McDonald's at Dobbin Center in the 6300 block of Dobbin Road about five minutes before the restaurant's 11 p.m. closing time, said Sgt. Steven Keller, a police spokesman. Seven employees -- but no customers -- were inside.As the men announced the robbery, one displayed a chrome-colored handgun while the other vaulted over the counter.

Three Taneytown teen-agers who police say shot a pizza delivery woman last week to get money to go to the movies are being held without bond at the Carroll County Detention Center.Edward F. "Eddie" Sible, 18, Corey A. Coil, 19, and Leo "Joey" Brandenburg, 17, who was charged as an adult, were arrested Thursday. State police charged them with attempted murder, first-degree assault, attempted armed robbery, conspiracy to commit armed robbery, attempted robbery and use of a handgun in the commission of a felony.

A Taneytown teen-ager, who was promised a lenient jail sentence in exchange for her testimony, said yesterday that co-defendant Edward F. "Eddie" Sible admitted several times after an attempted armed robbery last winter that he shot a pizza delivery woman.Melissa A. Redding, 19, is the state's key witness against Sible, 19, of Harney, who is accused of shooting Linda D. Bond, 48, in a botched robbery attempt Feb. 20.Redding told the Carroll County Circuit Court jurors that she, Sible, Cory A. Coil, 20, of Taneytown and her boyfriend, Leo "Joey" Brandenburg, 18, of Taneytown, were driving around and drinking before Sible suggested robbing the Pizza Hut delivery driver because they wanted money to buy crack cocaine.

NEW YORK -- In a move that had been anticipated, PepsiCo Inc. said yesterday that it will spin off its restaurants and possibly sell its restaurant supply company to focus on its more profitable and promising soft drinks and snacks.Pepsi will shed its biggest line of business -- KFC, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut -- which it has assembled over two decades, because it has dragged down earnings and chewed through much-needed capital. It didn't give the terms of the spinoff, though it expects to complete it by year-end.

Alcohol and drugs contributed to the shooting of a Taneytown pizza delivery woman last winter when four teen-agers planned to rob her for drug money, said Joseph Murtha, a Baltimore attorney representing the alleged shooter.The first-degree attempted murder trial of Edward F. "Eddie" Sible began yesterday in Carroll County Circuit Court.Sible, 19, of Harney is accused of firing two shots at Linda D. Bond, 48, of Westminster. One struck the side of her Toyota, and the other opened a baseball-size hole in the passenger window.