Cape Girardeau police were searching Friday night for a man who held up the Aldi's grocery story at gunpoint.

The man approached a clerk at the store at 7:50 p.m. and displayed a chrome handgun.

He was described as a 6-foot white male in his early 30s. He was wearing a dark jacket, a black turtleneck with the top pulled up to his nose, sunglasses and a black cap, Sgt. Rodney Barker said.

"He pointed the weapon at an employee and demanded she open the register," Barker said.

When she did he told her to walk away and took the money in the register, Barker said.

Two customers were in the store at the time. The clerk was the only employee there.

A witness reported seeing a reddish van driving through a nearby parking lot at a high rate of speed at about the time of the robbery.

The store is located at the intersection of Kingshighway and Independence Street in Cape Girardeau.