When Joanne Parsons went to work at Roma's Italian restaurant in Coolspring Township a couple of weeks ago, she was preparing to cook up some eggs and bacon. She said she didn't think she'd catch someone trying to steal the bacon.

She said she watched Nikolaus A. Beers, 23, try to break into a cash register, then slowly walk past her and leave the building. Beers has been charged with multiple counts of burglary in connection with at least three recent break-ins in the Mercer area, including Roma's.

"I was on the phone with 911 and I'm telling them what he's wearing as he was just strolling right along without a care in the world," she said.

"I saw the ice cream register was all a mess. I looked over to my right and gingerly walked in front of the soft-serve machine .. I saw a dark figure crouched down at (another) cash register. I asked him, 'Who are you?' and he said, 'Who are you?'

"I told him, 'I work here,' then told him, 'You know you shouldn't be in here'. And then I thought, I shouldn't be in here either. I did an about- face and went out the door and grabbed the phone.

"Then I went back in to get my purse, because your life's in your purse."

She later identified Beers for the state police.

Beers on Monday waived his charges to Mercer County Common Pleas Court instead of having a hearing.

Mrs. Parsons, her boss and Roma's owner Chuck Hodge and fellow employee Cynthia Mathieson were at District Justice Ruth French's office in Mercer, waiting to testify until they got word Beers chose to waive the hearing.

Hodge said his restaurant was also hit on Labor Day; that burglary cleaned Roma's out of $9,000.

Hodge and his two employees aren't letting what happened at Roma's put a stop to their work, but they are doing things a little differently.

"Since that incident, my surveillance has now been modified," said Hodge who lives behind the restaurant. "I also don't leave money in the building now."

Mrs. Parsons decided that she needs to take even stronger action to protect herself. "The only thing I'm going to have different is a gun permit," she said.

Hodge added, "Since he's (Beers) in jail now, I'm hoping somebody will come forward now about Labor Day."