Buena Park : 2 Arrested, 3 Sought in String of Robberies
Two men were arrested Wednesday and three more are being sought in connection with at least 10 strong-arm robberies in the county, police said.
Santa Ana police arrested Robert Nevarez Castaneda, 20, of Santa Ana and Michael Angel Lira, 18, of Garden Grove about an hour after two Buena Park residents were bound and their apartment ransacked Wednesday morning, police said. Castaneda and Lira are being held in County Jail on suspicion of robbery.
Police said that five men approached David Ward outside his Buena Park apartment shortly before 7 a.m. The men, described as in their mid-20s, carried at least three shotguns, Buena Park police spokesman Terry Branum said.
The men directed Ward, 22, back to the Malvern Street apartment where his father, Richard Ward, 53, was sleeping, Branum said. The five tied up the father and son in a bedroom and then ransacked the apartment.
Similar cases have occurred in Fountain Valley, Seal Beach and Santa Ana, and six times in Anaheim, Branum said.
In Wednesday’s robbery, the men stole a television, video cassette recorder, cash and jewelry, Branum said. Three of the men left in David Ward’s 1984 Honda and the other two left in a white BMW that had been reported stolen, Branum added.
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