Arrest Made in Series of Store Robberies

A series of coincidences helped police arrest a man who they say was responsible for about two dozen armed robberies of San Fernando Valley businesses, most of them on Ventura Boulevard.

Douglas McMann, 37, who police called a transient, was being held at the Van Nuys jail and was charged Tuesday with three counts of robbery and one count of assault with a deadly weapon for robbing three merchants.

Victims said the robber would brandish a gun and, after taking the cash, would force them to lie on the floor. He has never been seen leaving the shops and no one has been injured.

Authorities first learned of his identity Friday when a woman visiting the Los Angeles Police Department’s West Valley Division on other business happened to see a composite drawing of the robber and identified him as McMann to the desk officer, authorities said.

The desk officer, Ken Knox, did a computer check and found that police had briefly held McMann for several days at the beginning of March for an unrelated crime.

The day after McMann was identified, police said, Knox spotted him walking along Roscoe Boulevard near Louise Avenue in Van Nuys. Knox arrested him.

McMann is being held in lieu of $300,000 bail. If convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of 14 years in jail, according to the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office. At the time of the arrest, McMann said he lived with his parents in Simi Valley.

Additional charges may be filed against McMann if more victims identify him as the armed robber. So far eight victims could not positively identify McMann as the armed robber, police said.

McMann also is being investigated by authorities in San Diego County, where more than a dozen armed robberies committed in early March resemble the Ventura Boulevard holdups.

“We are interested (in this case) because there appears to be some similarities in the method of commission of the crimes,” said Sgt. Rick Sing of Oceanside Police Department, where the bulk of the robberies occurred. “Whether or not this is the same person, it remains to be seen.”