Arrests Nip 2 Inglewood Boys’ Crime Spree

Two 13-year-old boys--playing hooky from school--went on a three-hour crime spree in Inglewood on Monday, using a menacing-looking pellet gun to rob two dry cleaners, two markets and three women before they were arrested while allegedly casing another business, police said.

Investigators said the two juveniles, both of Los Angeles, were booked on suspicion of robbery and grand theft auto. Their names were not released because of their ages. No injuries were reported.

“They were a two-man crime spree,” Inglewood Detective Tom Chargaff said. “They were very sophisticated.”

Chargaff said the two boys, one of them standing 6-feet-tall, stole at least three cars during their sojourn, which began about 10:45 a.m., and ended around 2 p.m. Monday with their arrests in a parking lot at Crenshaw and Century boulevards after a police captain spotted them, in a stolen car, cruising suspiciously past another business.

$300 in Cash

The two apparently were staying in the area with a sister of one of the boys. Police said a search of her apartment turned up $300 in cash allegedly taken from several victims and a pellet gun that resembled a large caliber, blue-steel revolver.

“The gun looked so real it fooled me,” Chargaff said.

Police said the first crime actually took place Sunday night, in Los Angeles, when the pair stole a car at gunpoint from a woman.

At 10:45 a.m. Monday, officers said, the two boys stole a purse from a nurse at Centinela Hospital and then made off with her car.

“Everyone who saw them said they handled the cars real well,” Chargaff said. “They were just like adults.”

In rapid succession, within a several-block area, the pair allegedly held up a dry cleaning shop, another woman, another dry cleaner and two drive-in markets.

Shortly before their arrests, police said, the boys attempted to hold up a school crossing guard, but apparently were scared away by the woman’s uniform.