Suspected Arrested After Hotel Guests Are Robbed in Parking Lot

Buena Park police arrested a suspect Friday in a string of armed robberies in which a man approached hotel guests in parking lots, brandished what looked like a pistol and demanded money.

Michael David Hollif, 19, of Kansas was arrested early Friday after police saw a man at the Embassy Suites Hotel, 7762 Beach Blvd., hold up a family in the parking lot, said Tom Shearn, a Buena Park police training manager.

Hollif was charged with one count of armed robbery and is being held at Orange County Jail in lieu of $50,000 bail.

The family, Jeffrey and Pamela Hirsh and their two daughters, all of Garland, Tex., were returning to the hotel at 1:37 a.m., Shearn said.

The suspect “creeped up behind them and yelled at them,” he said. “He demanded their money.”

The Hirshes, who were not carrying wallets or purses, gave him an undetermined amount of money from their shirt pockets.

Police then chased the suspect, who fled over a wall and into a strawberry field just west of the hotel. An officer fired one shot but missed the suspect.

Hollif was arrested at 1:51 a.m. when officers, assisted by a Costa Mesa helicopter and Anaheim police dogs, found him hiding in a shed in the 7700 block of Dahlia Circle. The suspect was carrying a piece of wood that resembled a .45-caliber pistol.

Victims have reported several other similar armed robberies since July 13, Shearn said, including one in which about $300 was taken at the Quality Inn, 7555 Beach Blvd. Victims reported two other armed robberies, both at the Embassy Suites, on Monday and Wednesday, where a total of $1,000 in cash and traveler’s checks were stolen.

The suspect fits victims’ descriptions of a man about 6 feet tall, and wearing a hooded sweat shirt under a plaid shirt, Shearn said.

Police saw a man of that description Thursday morning at the Holiday Inn Buena Park, 7000 Beach Blvd., but a hotel security guard apparently scared him away, Shearn said.