HUNTINGTON BEACH : Police Seek Bandits in 2 Eatery Holdups

Police on Wednesday were looking for a pair of armed bandits who terrorized employees and customers at two Huntington Beach restaurants in as many nights.

Robberies at the Pizza Hut restaurant on Beach Boulevard on Monday night and Jeremiah’s on Warner Avenue on Tuesday both occurred minutes before closing, Police Lt. Ed McErlain said.

No one was injured in either robbery.

“We feel it’s probably the same suspects,” McErlain said. “That’s a high likelihood.”

McErlain said that at 9:40 p.m. on Monday, two men armed with shotguns stormed into the Pizza Hut and ordered three employees and two customers to lie face down.

The bandits demanded that the manager open the safe. But when she told them that she could not override a timing device that kept the safe automatically locked, the robbers demanded money from the cash register. They fled in a blue compact car, possibly a Nissan or Toyota, with the money in a duffel bag, McErlain said.

The robbers were not wearing masks.

The following evening, two men, again armed with shotguns, entered the kitchen of Jeremiah’s Restaurant, ordered the cooks at gunpoint to the main dining room and then forced employees and patrons to lie on the floor.

One of the men was wearing a ski mask, but pulled it up over his head during the robbery, McErlain said. The robbers ordered the manager to open the restaurant’s floor safe and then took $2,000 in cash, McErlain said.

Meanwhile, a patron who was alerted to the robbery by a scream from the kitchen sneaked to a pay phone and called police. But when police arrived and surrounded the restaurant, they were told that the robbers had already fled to a nearby Carrows restaurant.

Police surrounded that eatery, but no suspects were found.

Witnesses described one of the suspects as a white male, with short brown curly hair, about 5 feet, 10 inches to 6 feet tall, about 150 pounds, wearing a navy blue jacket and blue jeans.

The second suspect was described as a white male, 28 to 30 years old, with neck-length straight brown hair, a mustache, about 5 feet, 6 inches tall, stocky, and also wearing a navy blue jacket and blue jeans.

McErlain urged anyone with information to call the Huntington Beach Police Department at (714) 536-5940.