Two people have been arrested following the armed robbery of an auto parts store in Margate and police are checking to see if they are responsible for other robberies around Broward.

The holdup happened shortly before 9 p.m. Thursday at the AutoZone at 6650 West Atlantic Boulevard, police said.

Employees said they were making preparations to close the business for the night when two armed robbers entered with their faces concealed.

“We were getting ready to close the store down, and these two guys with masks and guns came in and duct-taped us and tied us down in the back,” said Victor Hildago, an AutoZone employee.

The armed robbers duct-taped three of the employees and forced the fourth to open the business’ safe, workers said.

“I was frightened because both of them had guns and I didn’t know what might happen next,” Hildago said. “They duct-taped me and then they duct-taped my co-worker, put him on top of me, and then they just told us to cooperate and nothing would happen, but you never know when you have a gun drawn to your face.”

Before the robbers were done, customers walked into the store, saw what was happening and ran to another business to call 911.

Police officers from Margate and Coconut Creek and deputies from the Broward Sheriff’s Office were among those who were at the scene.

One person was taken into custody shortly after the incident but it took authorities several hours to apprehend the second suspect. Their identities have not yet been released.

Their methods resembled at least five armed robberies in Hollywood between Sept. 3 and Oct. 3 with the gunmen wearing hoodies and masks and duct-taping their victims, Lt. Derik Alexander said, but it’s too early to know if these arrestees are responsible for those holdups.

“It hasn’t been verified,” he said. “I know we sent one of our detectives up to [Margate] but I don’t have any idea yet if these people are the ones we referred to in our [case] or not.”

There have been similar armed robberies in Hallandale Beach, Miramar, Pembroke Pines and West Park. The Broward Sheriff’s Office is also checking to see if the Margate suspects are linked to the West Park case.

“We are aware of the arrests,” spokeswoman Keyla Concepcion said. “Our detectives will be looking into it.”

The federal bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms is the lead investigating agency now, Margate police said.

Correspondent Jim Donnelly contributed to this story

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