By Staff Writer Brian Day

A gunman wearing a business suit fled empty-handed late Thursday following a failed robbery at a Rite Aid Pharmacy in Hacienda Heights, authorities said.

The would-be robber entered the pharmacy, 2060 S. Hacienda Boulevard, and began walking around the business, Los Angeles County sheriff’s Lt. Raymond Enriquez said.

He then made his way to the pharmacy counter, where he pulled out a small, silver semi-automatic handgun and pointed it at a female employee.

He told the woman to stand in front of him, but she instead fled from him, grabbed a telephone and notified fellow employees to lock the front doors, the lieutenant said.

The gunman unsuccessfully tried to hop the pharmacy counter before making his way back to the store’s main entrance, Enriquez said.

The armed man escaped after ordering an employee to open the locked front door, Enriquez added.

Officials described the failed robber as a Latino man in his 40s or 50s, with salt and pepper hair, wearing a gray suit with a tie and round-framed glasses.

He was last seen getting into a white, 2000s-model Toyota sedan with a waiting driver. The car headed north on Hacienda Boulevard.