Police have connected two hotel gunpoint robberies that occurred this week within five days and a quarter mile of one another.

“We are thinking there’s a link between the two,” said David Blough, Brimfield Township chief of police.

Blough said the Brimfield Police Department has “two people of interest” as suspects in the incidents, which took place Sept. 27 and Monday.

The Monday robbery occurred at the Hampton Inn at 4406 state Route 43, near the intersection of state Route 43 and Interstate 76. According to the police report, the suspect, a black male approximately 6 feet tall, entered the hotel’s front doors around 1 a.m. and demanded money from the clerk at the hotel’s front desk. The suspect was holding a black automatic pistol, according to the report.

After the clerk complied, the suspect took $218 and left, according to the police report.

Representatives from the Hampton Inn declined to comment on the incident.

The first robbery took place Sept. 27 at the Super 8 Motel on 4380 Edson Road, a minute’s drive from the Hampton Inn.

According to a press release by the Brimfield Police Department, the suspect entered the hotel around 1 a.m., pointed a handgun at the clerk on duty and demanded cash. The suspect bound the clerk and sent him to a back room of the hotel, according to the report.

Yogesh Patel, manager of the Super 8, said “around $600 to $700” cash was stolen.

Patel said the timing of these robberies is unusual.

“This is unusual, in October like this,” he said, adding that if hotel robberies occur, they typically happen during the Christmas holidays when business is slower and not as many people are around.

The Super 8 has installed video surveillance cameras in the hotel’s lobby and throughout the building, Patel said.

Aside from that, business has not been affected, he said.

Police are currently investigating both robberies. Blough said the Brimfield Police Department has increased its patrol of the area and is doing “everything (it) can” to find the suspects.

“When you have a robbery situation where a gun is being pointed at someone, we take that very seriously,” he said.

Contact public affairs reporter Abbey Stirgwolt at [email protected].