A New Orleans man convicted of two 2002 Slidell area armed robberies, including a Burger King heist where he locked employees inside a cooler, was sentenced to 60 years in prison Thursday.

Eric Bridges, 34, received the sentence by state district court Judge William Burris, who ruled Bridges was a repeat offender under Louisiana law. His record boasts a 1998 conviction to possession with intent to distribute crack cocaine in Orleans Parish Criminal District Court.

Bridges and co defendant Randy “Slim” Johnson, 25, also of New Orleans, were accused of robbing Corporate Cleaners on Gause Boulevard on Aug. 9, 2002, and Burger King, also on Gause Boulevard, on Aug. 11, 2002. Johnson meanwhile, is serving four years after pleading guilty to two charges of simple robbery in 2005.

Bridges and Johnson, cruising St. Tammany for businesses to rob, found the dry cleaners’ door ajar. Bridges jumped out of his van, darted inside and pocketed $55, according to police reports.

Two days later, on Aug. 11, 2002, the pair robbed Burger King, masked and armed, with Bridges sporting a .38-caliber handgun. Storming the fast food eatery, they forced at gunpoint two employees into a cooler. A third, manager Roxanna Navarre, 50, was kept outside to open a safe. Navarre opened the safe and the duo stole $1,400, according to reports.

The duo then stole Navarre’s 1993 Mazda MPV minivan and fled to New Orleans. Once there, on Claiborne Avenue, Bridges wrecked into a police car. Both were arrested that day.

Bridges was arrested and jailed in 2002 for a string of robberies in New Orleans. When those charges were dropped in 2007, he was booked in St. Tammany Parish for the Slidell robberies.

Bridges faced between 49 1/2 years and 198 years for the robbery after he was deemed a repeat offender. Armed robbery typically carries 10 to 99 years in prison.