Police Foil Robbery Attempt; 4 Arrested
Four men were arrested as they fled after allegedly trying to rob a 99 Cents Only Store at gunpoint and pistol-whipping an employee, police said Monday.
“They got, believe it or not, less than 99 cents. They got nothing,” said Steve Charles, an operations manager for the chain.
The robbery attempt occurred at the store on Laurel Canyon Boulevard at 1:30 a.m. Monday. Three workers were inside.
“Four suspects entered the store, confronted some employees, displayed handguns and robbed the place,” said Sgt. Greg Vinger, a North Hollywood Division police spokesman. An employee tripped a silent alarm that alerted police.
The worker who was pistol-whipped was not seriously injured, Vinger said. He said the robbers fired on the first police unit to arrive, shattering the store’s front window, but that more police soon surrounded the store and caught the suspects as they tried to escape.
Juan C. Martinez, 23, Cesar Montecimo, 19, Edgar Villalobos, 23, and Luis Diaz, 19, were detained by police and charged with robbery.
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