2 Robbers Elude SWAT in Market Rooftop Break-In

Police SWAT teams combed a North Hollywood shopping center for five hours Friday without finding two armed men who broke through the roof of a supermarket and held up the manager before fleeing.

The robbers apparently escaped in the two minutes it took police to respond to a 911 call from Alpha Beta employees, Los Angeles Police Capt. Bruce Mitchell said.

Light traffic the day after Thanksgiving enabled police to arrive quickly, he said.

“How we missed them, I don’t know. We’re baffled,” Mitchell said.

When officers arrived about 8 a.m. at the shopping center in the 12700 block of Sherman Way, they found about $2,000, bolt cutters, drill bits and a six-foot-tall aluminum ladder in the rear of the grocery store, Mitchell said.

Detectives first thought the robbers had thrown the tools and money off the roof and had hidden from police inside the

store’s attic. Nearby stores were evacuated and a two-block stretch of Sherman Way was closed while special weapons and tactics teams searched for the men.

But the men apparently escaped in a car hidden in a nearby alley, Mitchell said.

The robbery began when two men cut a hole through the roof before employees arrived to open the store at 6 a.m., Mitchell said. Armed with handguns and wearing dark clothing, ski masks and gloves, the men hid in the attic above the manager’s offices until the manager and another employee opened the safe shortly before 8 a.m., he said.

The safe contained $10,000 to $12,000, Mitchell said. Most of the store’s money was in another safe elsewhere in the store, said a detective who asked not to be identified.

As the office safe was being opened, the men dropped into the office through a 3-by-3-foot trapdoor, making such noise that the manager thought it was an earthquake, Lt. John D. McCrillis said.

The men ordered the two store employees to lie on the floor of the office while they robbed the safe, Mitchell said. But another employee heard the noise and interrupted the robbery, frightening away the two men.

While employees called 911 and then left the store with a handful of customers, the robbers escaped through the roof, Mitchell said.

SWAT teams cautiously searched the grocery store and a liquor store next door with the help of police dogs, McCrillis said. Packets of money were found throughout the attic and offices of the grocery store, leading detectives to believe the robbers fled with about $6,000 to $8,000.

Despite earlier reports, Detective Charles Uribe said police do not believe there is any connection between this robbery and one last month at a Downey discount store in which two police officers were wounded in a fierce gun battle.

“This was pretty simple compared to the Downey case,” Uribe said.