2 Robbers Foiled Trying to Open Gas Station Safe

A Simi Valley gas station manager was bound and held at gunpoint Monday in a robbery attempt that was foiled by an electronic counter safe, a Simi Valley police spokesman said.

Vijaykumar Kardani, manager of the Thrifty station at 2211 Tapo St., said two men entered the station’s mini-market around 8:30 a.m. while he was doing paperwork. He said that he recalled seeing the pair at the station earlier Monday.

One man asked Kardani where he could find a certain candy bar, then shoved the barrel of a handgun into the manager’s chest after he came out from behind the counter, Kardani said in an interview.

“He told me, ‘I’ve killed a lot of people, so do you want to live or do you want to die?”’ Kardani said. “My life was in front of me. I told him to take whatever he wanted.”

Kardani said the gunman bound his hands behind his back with duct tape and put him in a bathroom. He kept the gun trained on the manager while his partner attempted to open the safe.

“Two customers came in and the other guy must have gotten confused what to do,” Kardani said.

Lt. Neal Rein said the thieves took a key from the manager but lacked another key needed to open the safe. The men, in their 20s, fled in a late-model, light-blue BMW 735i. Customers then freed Kardani and called the police.

“They must have been targeting the safe,” Kardani said, “because there was about $100 in the cash register they left behind.”