Oceanside
A man in his 20s has staged a series of North County holdups at needle point--threatening his victims with a hypodermic syringe he claims contains the deadly AIDS virus, Oceanside police reported Friday.
“He’s struck three days in a row,” police spokesman Bob George said.
In each case, the man has entered a business in Oceanside or Vista, threatened the clerk with the syringe, demanded the money in the cash register and walked away.
Oceanside Police Sgt. Mark Alderson said Friday that he received a call from a San Francisco radio station inquiring about the incidents here because of a series of similar holdups in the Bay Area. He speculated that the local bandit might be copying the San Francisco crimes.
Two of the North County holdups occurred in Oceanside and one in Vista, a San Diego County sheriff’s deputy said.
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