Irvine / Tustin : 2 Restaurant Holdups Under Investigation
Police are investigating any possible connection between the robbery of a Tustin restaurant shortly after midnight Sunday and a bungled holdup an hour earlier at an Irvine restaurant.
Except for one employee in the Irvine holdup who suffered minor injuries, no one was hurt in the stickups, police said.
Tustin and Irvine investigators are working closely together on the two robberies, Tustin Police Lt. Bob Schoenkopf said.
According to Irvine police, a man with a handgun forced an employee of Gulliver’s at 18482 MacArthur Blvd. to re-enter the closed restaurant at 11:47 p.m. Inside, he ordered eight other employees who were cleaning up the restaurant to lie on the floor. Suddenly he fled, without any money or property, police said.
About an hour later in Tustin, two men with handguns grabbed an employee who was leaving through the back door of Marie Callender’s restaurant at 731 West 1st St., police said.
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