Man Held, 2nd Robber Escapes in Mall Holdup

One man was arrested Friday after a bungled robbery attempt at the Robinsons-May department store in the Fox Hills Mall. A second robber hiding inside the store escaped as police searched the building for nearly six hours, authorities said.

The sprawling Culver City mall was closed after the 7:30 a.m. robbery attempt, during which two employees were bound by the robbers. One worker escaped on his own, and the other untied herself and hid in a room until she was freed by a sheriff’s SWAT team, police said. Both were unharmed.

Police said late Friday that they were unsure how the second robber was able not only to evade 20 sheriff’s deputies searching the store, but also escape from the mall. All parking lot entrances were guarded throughout the day by the Culver City Police Department, California Highway Patrol officers and mall security guards.

Police said the daylong incident began after a man and a woman, armed with handguns, walked through an open loading door of the store, ran into a male employee and bound him with duct tape. The robbers grabbed a female worker and made her take them to a room where money was kept. She was later freed.

As the robbers headed to the room, police said, they were seen by a third employee who triggered an alarm. She also was bound by the robbers, who stuffed two large metal boxes with an undetermined amount of cash, police said.

Within a minute of receiving the alarm and an earlier phone call, police said, officers from Culver City swarmed the parking lot outside the store. Carryig the the cash, the robbers walked out, saw the officers and darted back inside.

Meanwhile, the male employee who was tied with duct tape had escaped, along with four other workers who were inside the store, police said. The other worker who was tied up managed to break free and lock herself inside the room, where she called authorities.

The sheriff’s SWAT team, which had been called by Culver City police, entered the store about 10 a.m. and about 25 minutes later rescued that woman.

Two SWAT teams began combing the 190,000-square-foot store, searching all three floors with dogs and crawling through the attic and air-conditioning ducts. About noon, the dogs sniffed out the male suspect, who was found covered with dust in an attic crawl space.

The man was described as a Los Angeles resident in his mid-20s. Police did not release his name Friday. He was charged with armed robbery but could also face kidnapping charges, police said.

Police called off the search at 3:50 p.m. Authorities had not determined whether they would reopen the mall Friday.

Earlier this week, Culver City police issued a news release saying serious crime in the city had dropped 14% in 1995. Despite Friday’s incident, police insisted that the Fox Hills Mall is one of the safest in the county.

“Crooks know we have a fast response time,” said Culver City Lt. John Montanio said.

Times staff writer Robert J. Lopez contributed to this story.