BELMONT, N.C. -- Employees at a KFC restaurant in Belmont found themselves herded into the restaurant freezer by an armed robber before the restaurant opened Monday morning.

The restaurant’s doors were open to allow employees to enter.

The distress is obvious in the voice of one of the employees who called 911, saying the robber had stuck a gun to the back of his head.

The robber stole from the restaurant office while the employees waited in the freezer for a chance to free themselves.

“They have a panic button from the inside of the freezer and they finally hit it after a time period, then got out and called police,” said Chief David James with the Belmont Police Department.

Gastonia police came to assist in the investigation on the chance that this robbery is connected to a similar one last week at a KFC on West Franklin Boulevard.

That Gastonia location was robbed by two men, one of whom fired a shot inside. Customers and employees fled the store, leaving the robbers to take what they wanted. The culprits in that case were described as black males.

The robber in Belmont Monday was white, but wore a hooded sweatshirt similar to the Gastonia robbers and was armed.

Both stores had surveillance cameras, but police in both Belmont and Gastonia said the images of the robbers were of poor quality and useless for identification.