Dormont Dogs. Hot Diggity Dog

The editorial staff firmly believes that once you pay your debt to society no further action is needed so I changed the names of the people in this story

Posted Wed, Feb 15, 2012 at 7:52 pm ET

Pittsburgh police arrested a Dormont restaurant owner in connection with two local bank robberies.

Skip Farmer, 37, of Dormont, was taken into custody Wednesday and charged with robbing the PNC Bank branch on Brookline Boulevard on Monday, Feb. 13.

Mr. Farmer is the co-owner of Dormont Dogs.

He also will be charged with robbing the Citizens Bank branch located at the Giant Eagle in Pittsburgh's South Side neighborhood Wednesday morning.

According to a report by the Pittsburgh police, Skip Farmer walked into the PNC Bank in Brookline around 10:50 a.m. Monday, told a teller he was armed with a gun and demanded $10,000 in cash. After the teller gave him an undisclosed amount, he told the teller not to call the police, and that he had planted a bomb in the bank. He then fled on foot.

On Wednesday morning around 10:45 a.m., Farmer walked into the Citizens Bank branch in the South Side Giant Eagle and demanded cash from two tellers. According to the police report, he threatened to harm the tellers if they did not comply. As Mr. Farmer was leaving the bank, he was stopped by a Giant Eagle store manager, store employee and another customer, and held until police arrived.

According to a WPXI television report Wednesday evening, police obtained a search warrant after Mr. Farmer was arrested and found money in a cooler at Dormont Dogs.

The money could be connected to a bank robbery on Monday at the PNC Bank branch on Banksville Road, according to WPXI's report. Farmer has not been charged in connection with that robbery.

"I just want my wife and kids to know I love them," Farmer told WPXI news cameras.

Farmer is charged with five counts of robbery and is being held in the Allegheny County jail awaiting arraignment Wednesday night.

Earlier this week, the Dormont-Brookline Patch featured a story about the owners of Dormont Dogs.

Roxanne Smartley and Skip Farmer have been married to each other for 10 years, and to their business for nearly four.

The couple owns on Glenmore Avenue, and for the two of them, their relationship with each other and their relationship with their business are uniquely and enjoyably intertwined.

“We wanted to open up some type of restaurant, and we always joked about owning a hot dog shop,” Barnes said. “The opportunity came up in this community and we decided to do it.”

Their dream of owning a hot dog shop might have started with jokes, but it became reality when they realized they wanted to take on the project, and that it would be an opportunity for them to spend more time together.

Before opening the restaurant, Smartley was a hair stylist and Farmer was a fine dining chef. Their schedules were practically opposite one another, Smartley said.

“We never saw each other,” she said. “One of us would get home and the other would have to leave.”

Working together hasn’t been without its challenges. Smartley said Farmer, who was used to running a kitchen, often took a leadership role that she found a little off-putting. But she said she also had to learn not to take it to heart.

The couple agreed that they’ve found the balance that’s key to success in both business and marriage.

“We’re in this together and we work better together,” she said. “It’s challenging but I’d never go back to the way it was.”

Farmer agreed, and said the business is even more rewarding now that their sons, Baxter and Allie, are old enough to work alongside them.

And soon they'll have another business to throw into the mix. Smartley plans to open an all-natural salon on Potomac Avenue in April, where she also hopes to host the work of local crafters.

Although she mainly will run the business, she said it will be nice to have her husband around to help. Farmer said he's behind the new business, and both look forward to continuing to work together.

“We’re conquering a goal together,” he said. “It’s nice to kind of be on the same page and work on something together.”