2 Brothers Jailed in Grocery Robberies

Two brothers suspected of being the “well-dressed, well-spoken” bandits who robbed grocery stores in eight Orange County cities were being held in Orange County Jail on $100,000 bail each Thursday.

When arrested in Culver City Tuesday, they were free on bail pending armed robbery charges in Long Beach, authorities said.

Johnny Rubio, 33, and Richard Rocky Rubio, 28, both of Los Angeles, were spotted by Culver City police and identified from the descriptions on a Huntington Beach armed-robbery warrant.

They will participate in a police lineup July 25, so that Huntington Beach and other cities “can take a look at them and possibly file other charges,” said Huntington Beach police spokeswoman Jo Anne Bergstrom.

She said the men were wanted in connection with grocery store holdups in Huntington Beach, Garden Grove, Fountain Valley, Buena Park, Westminster, Santa Ana, Orange and Placentia, as well as “numerous cities” in Los Angeles County.

In Huntington Beach, Bergstrom said the Rubios fit descriptions of the robbers who held up the Ralphs supermarket at 19041 Beach Boulevard April 25, the Von’s supermarket at 5922 Edinger St. on April 17, and perhaps others.

The culprits in those and similar robberies throughout the county have been described as tall, polite and very well dressed, Bergstrom said.

“It was common for them to be very well spoken and well dressed. They would often wear V-neck sweaters with a tie and dress slacks,” she said.

“Their operating method was well known. Johnny would take the manager to the safe and empty it, and Richard would take money out of the registers,” she added.

Police have not added up the amounts taken in all the robberies, but Bergstrom said it is in the “tens of thousands” of dollars.