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— The two men accused of robbing a string of Waffle House restaurants in Georgia and Alabama had a routine. They placed to-go orders, and after the food was cooked, the police say, they pulled out guns and demanded all the store’s cash. Sometimes they ate, sometimes they did not.

“Another day, another Waffle House robbery,” began one article in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, as 18 Waffle Houses were robbed this summer.

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Throughout the South, it was not so much the three-week crime spree that caught people’s attention. It was the location.

Waffle House, a ubiquitous chain of yellow-roofed diners, is as much a fixture of Southern life as the grits, hash browns and crispy waffles that it serves all day, every day, even on Christmas. In Georgia, where the 1,600-store chain originated, it is hard to find an Interstate exit without the restaurant’s yellow block-letter sign nearby.

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In the Atlanta area alone, there are 230 locations, all offering heaping portions, strong coffee and jukeboxes that play songs about Waffle House. And federal emergency officials even use what they call the Waffle House Index to determine how severe natural disasters are in the South. If a local Waffle House is closed, along with a Home Depot or a Wal-Mart , it indicates a longer recovery process.

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But in recent weeks, bad news has kept coming for the restaurant chain.

Even after the two suspects were arrested in August and detained in Shelby County, Ala., where they are awaiting trial, Waffle House has been linked to one bizarre story after another, raising the question: Does Waffle House attract more news than other establishments, or does news receive extra attention when it happens at Waffle House?