Local News in Brief : North County : Shoe Stores Pinched by Series of Robberies

The shoe clerk recognized the heavyset blond man robbing the Garden Grove store this week. He was wearing the Size 12 sneakers he stole the last time he robbed a store where she was working.

Police said Wednesday that there were four shoe store robberies between Sunday and Tuesday and that two, at least, were apparently committed by the same man.

The clerk was working at the Fayva Shoes store on Beach Boulevard in Huntington Beach on Sunday afternoon when a man stole some cash and a pair of leather tennis shoes from the store, police said.

On Tuesday night, she was working at the chain’s store on Chapman Avenue in Garden Grove when the same man waved a gun at her and demanded money, she told police. He escaped with a total of $295 from the two stores, police said.

Two other shoe store robberies were reported Tuesday.

In the first, police said, a man entered the Payless ShoeSource store on Beach Boulevard in Huntington Beach about 2:30 p.m., browsed for several minutes then brought a box of shoes to the cash register. He draped a blue towel over his hand, saying that he had a gun, and demanded money, Huntington Beach Police spokeswoman Jo Anne Bonkowski said. After he ordered the 19-year-old sales clerk to the rear of the store, he escaped with about $200 in cash.

In the second robbery, at Patrini Shoes next door, a man entered just after 6 p.m. brandishing a revolver, Bonkowski said. He ordered the sales clerks to open the register, then ordered them and the customers in the store to lie on the floor. Four people who then entered the store were also ordered to lie down. The bandit took about $200 from the register and fled.

“Right now, they are not considered related,” Bonkowski said. “Tuesday was just a very bad day for crime.”