Police are investigating whether the same armed man robbed three stores in recent weeks, two of them within an hour of each other on Monday afternoon.

A store clerk at Rix Island Wear at Ward Warehouse is pretty sure the man who robbed her store on Monday also tried to rob the Walgreens on Keeaumoku Street on Aug. 18, Rix owner Rick Ralston said.

Ralston said the description and video given by CrimeStoppers for the Walgreens robber was identical to the man who demanded money from clerk Christine Aikau as he held a handgun on her on Monday.

"She said, ‘That’s our guy!’" Ralston said.

In both cases, the suspect was described as between 30 and 40 years old; about 6 feet 1 inch tall; between 160 and 210 pounds; and wearing a black, hooded sweatshirt, blue camouflage pants and a baseball cap.

In all three robberies, the robber flashed a black, semiautomatic handgun, witnesses said.

HPD spokeswoman Michelle Yu said, "We are looking at the possibility that the robberies may be connected."

On Monday, a man in his 20s walked into Posh Liquor on Kaiulani Avenue in Waikiki at about 3:40 p.m. and demanded money from the cashier. The robber then fled on foot, police said.

At about 4:15 p.m., a man approached Aikau at Rix Island Wear and also demanded money.

Ralston said that Aikau pressed the silent alarm button below the cash register and that she tried to stall the robber until authorities arrived by pretending to not know how to open the register. When the situation got tense, she opened the register, and he reached over to grab $377, Ralston said. As he fled out the door, she called 911 on a cordless phone while following the suspect into the street, where he lost himself in cars and buildings, Ralston said.

Ralston said the alarm company he uses "dropped the ball" and failed to alert police until 21 minutes after the initial alarm. An alarm company employee apologized, saying the alarm was mistaken for a burglary alert.

According to Ralston, "We’ve got some changes coming (in security) very soon."

Ralston also said that after looking at the security camera video on the Star-Advertiser website of the Walgreens robbery, he is contemplating installing a security camera at Rix.

The Walgreens incident took place Aug. 18 at the pharmacy counter about 1:30 p.m. Police said the robber at first asked for medications and was told he needed to present a prescription. He pulled out what appeared to be a gun. In the video, two clerks are seen leaving the counter, and the would-be robber walks away empty-handed a short time later.

Anyone with information is asked to call CrimeStoppers at 955-8300 or *CRIME on a cellphone.