‘Comedy of Errors’ : 3 Gunmen Make Hash of Steakhouse Robbery
Three gunmen apparently went to a lot of trouble to plan a robbery at a Burbank restaurant Friday, but made mistakes which turned it into “a comedy of errors,” police said.
The gunmen robbed four employees and escaped, apparently in a 1987 or 1988 white Ford Mustang, after the 3 a.m. robbery at the Black Angus restaurant in the 200 block of South First Street.
But they got only a small amount of cash and a few watches, police said.
Sgt. Don Goldberg said the trio struck just after the restaurant’s cash receipts for the previous day had been deposited in a safe that employees could not open. He said they also allowed two employees to slip out of the restaurant and alert authorities, which forced the suspects to flee just minutes after the robbery had begun.
“There is an indication they may have been casing the place and were organized in what they were doing,” Goldberg said. “But once they were inside they were terribly disorganized. It became a comedy of errors.”
Goldberg said the robbers came in through a rear service door that had been propped open by janitors who were cleaning up after the business had closed. He said the robbers drew handguns and told the 10 employees in the restaurant to lie on the floor, then demanded to be led to the safe.
Goldberg said that when the robbers determined the restaurant safe was on a time-lock system and could not be opened, they began taking cash and jewelry from the employees.
But after only four of the employees were robbed, Goldberg said, a bartender and disc jockey were able to sneak out a door while the gunmen were not watching. The two, whose names were not released, ran across the street to a hotel to call police. Meanwhile, the robbers fled. None of the employees were injured.
“It looks like the suspects didn’t realize ahead of time how many people were going to be inside,” Goldberg said. “They had a hard time keeping everybody in sight. After the two employees slipped out, they figured they had to get going.”