Robbery Suspect Arrested After Returning to Pick Up Girlfriend

BUENA PARK —  It was the case of the bandit who left his love at Love’s.

A gun-wielding man held up a Love’s restaurant Wednesday night and left with more than $300, police said. In a rush because the restaurant owner was trying to catch the license plate number of the robber’s car, the man began pulling out of the parking lot--without his girlfriend, who had been waiting outside.

“The girl was hollering after him and slapping the back of the car,” said Larry Anderson, owner of Love’s at 8692 Stanton Ave. “At the time I didn’t know what she was doing.”

The driver then traveled south on Stanton Avenue and turned into a dead-end street to avoid oncoming traffic, Anderson said. He doubled back, stopped to pick up his girlfriend, and sped to the Riverside Freeway.

The couple then led police on a high-speed chase for nearly half an hour until a blown tire forced them off the freeway in Montebello in Los Angeles County, Buena Park Police Sgt. Terry Branum said. They fled on foot but were caught moments later, he said.

Stanley W. Bishop, 38, of Downey and Nancy V. Horton, 33, of Long Beach were arrested and booked at Orange County Central Jail on suspicion of robbery and evading police. They are still in custody and bail has been set at $20,000 each, Branum said.

“I guess he didn’t want to leave me,” Horton said in a jailhouse interview on Thursday. “He came back for me, but it didn’t work out.”