THOUSAND OAKS : Restaurant Robbers Leave Scrawled Message About King

Three men armed with an automatic rifle robbed a Thousand Oaks sandwich shop and scrawled a message about the Rodney G. King verdict in mustard on the restaurant floor before fleeing, authorities said Thursday.

The robbery began about 9:45 p.m. Wednesday at the Subway sandwich shop on North Moorpark Road, Sheriff’s Lt. Kelly McIlvain said.

After entering the shop, the men tied up the employees and took about $700 from the cash register and safe, McIlvain said.

Before fleeing, the men used a mustard bottle to squirt “Rodney King w/s bbp 187 Police,” on the floor, McIlvain said.

“I’m not going to hazard a guess or speculate what that means,” McIlvain said.

In the California Penal Code, “187” is the reference number for homicide.

The penal code numbers, followed by the initials LAPD, have been spray-painted on walls throughout South Los Angeles since last month’s rioting, worrying some officers that gang members could be targeting police.

Although the three men wore clothes that could identify them as gang members and carried a weapon similar to those often used by Los Angeles gangs, McIlvain said, investigators had not categorized the crime as gang-related.

“We have no other criminal cases similar to this,” Sheriff’s Detective Ed Wyand said.

“The crime itself is not unusual, but the nuances with the Rodney King trial are,” Wyand said.

“It could be somebody from our county just trying to get some attention, or it could be someone from Los Angeles coming up here.”