Buffalo Bills running back Marshawn Lynch took $20 from a Southtowns woman at a Hamburg

restaurant last month, according to information received by The Buffalo News.

The woman's husband, Buffalo Police Sgt. William Crawford, filed a complaint with Hamburg

police a day after the incident, but they delayed giving a statement to detectives until

Wednesday, in part because she wanted to wait until the Bills' football season ended

and Lynch was out of town.

"She's terrified of him. He threatened her girlfriend who tried to retrieve the money after

he robbed my wife," Crawford said. "He thinks he's above the law because of his status as an

athlete."

The incident occurred Dec. 7, at the TGI Friday's at McKinley Mall, where the detective

sergeant's wife and her girlfriend had stopped before heading home.

After hearing what happened, Crawford said he went the next day to the Hamburg Police

Department and filed a complaint against Lynch.

Hamburg police declined to comment but confirmed that Crawford made a complaint.

Crawford asked that his wife's name be withheld because she and her girlfriend are frightened of retribution from Lynch.

Crawford said his wife's girlfriend was approached at the restaurant by another member of

the Buffalo Bills, who struck up a conversation with the unmarried woman. At some point, Lynch

arrived at the restaurant and joined them.

When the woman's girlfriend stepped away from the table, Crawford said his wife pulled out a

$20 bill to pay their check in preparation for leaving.

Lynch, 23, of Hamburg, then grabbed the money from her hand.

"He takes the $20 out of her hand, and my wife says "What are you doing?' and Lynch says

"Don't worry.' When my wife's girlfriend came back to the table, she told her about it. The

girlfriend approached Lynch and said, "Give my friend her money back,' and Lynch threatened

her saying "Do you know who I am? There's going to be consequences.'

"At that point, my wife and her girlfriend left," Crawford said.

Crawford said he filed the complaint the next day with Hamburg police, and about 10 days

later, a letter with $20 arrived at their home from the police.

Michael P. Caffery, Lynch's Buffalo attorney, declined to comment on the incident. He said

Lynch is out of town.

Mark S. Carney, an attorney representing Crawford and his wife, who live in Orchard Park,

raised concerns over how the $20 was returned.

"In what other robbery case would you expect a police agency to be used as a delivery

service to make restitution for payment of money wrongfully taken?" Carney said.

The Crawfords later learned that Lynch tried to minimize the incident by telling Bills

security personnel that he was a friend of hers. Crawford said that upset his wife, who does

not know Lynch. At that point, she decided to give a statement to Hamburg police.

"We're not doing this because I'm a policeman. We're doing this because he robbed her. We

want it to go to a grand jury. Lynch is a predator," Crawford said.

Lynch is currently on three years' probation for a misdemeanor gun possession charge in Los

Angeles and, earlier this week, an Ontario woman began a negligence lawsuit against him for

his highly publicized 2008 hit-and-run accident in downtown Buffalo.

Lynch has two years remaining on a five-year contract that he signed in 2007. The original

contract was worth $10.275 million.

Bills spokesman Scott Berchtold said the team has no comment on the matter.