OXNARD : Pizza Parlor Robbed as Manager Closes

A man with an unidentified weapon forced the manager of an Oxnard pizza parlor back inside his store as he locked up early Friday morning and took an undisclosed sum of money from the store’s safe, police said.

Oxnard police later recovered the money from two suspects who were identified and arrested near the scene.

Jesus Fuentes of Oxnard was accompanied by his girlfriend and their 18-month-old son as he locked up Little Caesar’s Pizza at Doris Avenue and Ventura Roadabout 2 a.m., police said.

Fuentes, 19, told police a man approached him, stuck a sharp object in his side, and demanded money.

Minutes later, Officer Ed Ludaescher, accompanied by a police dog, saw two men--one of whom matched the description Fuentes had provided--at the intersection of K Street and Bottlebrush Place, police said. The officer detained the suspects, one of whom was identified as police said.

Fuentes later identified Floyd Lester Jackson of Oxnard as the man who robbed him and Jerome Smith, 35, as a former employee of Little Caesar’s Pizza, police said.