It seems that some nefarious characters fell down the rabbit hole last Friday night. The City Desk reports that the Wonderland Ballroom–Columbia Heights’ enclave of kitsch, quirkdom, and delicious foot-long hotdogs–fell victim to an armed robbery by three masked men.

Yesterday, as Wonderland filled up with the tragically hip for weekly trivia night, bar co-owner Matthew McGovern sat down and gave us the scoop: when the perps entered the bar around 9 p.m., it was fairly crowded with regulars, who at first thought the robbery was staged as some sort of practical joke. One of the three guys stood watch at the door, one had the bartender empty out the register, and the third got what he could from the patrons.

The entire operation took about three minutes, after which the customers went back to their boozing and merry-making. The police, who haven’t had any luck catching the guys, pointed out to McGovern that, while muggings are par for the course in Columbia Heights, stick-ups of businesses are fairly infrequent. We’re glad that no one was injured, and that Wonderland wasn’t looking much worse for the wear last night.

Photo by flickr user Don Feduardo