CALABASAS : Motel Clerk Injured in Robbery Attempt
Two guests of a Calabasas motel shot and seriously wounded a motel clerk in a botched robbery attempt and then fled without obtaining any money--not even the $60 they had paid for their room.
The two men walked into the lobby of the Good Nite Inn in the 26500 block of Agoura Road early Monday morning and registered for the night, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Sgt. Cameron Mooney said. After paying for their room, the men went outside to make calls on a pay phone.
As they did, night manager Ronald Wittenbel, 51, left the office to check on a disturbance in the motel’s pool courtyard. When he returned, the two men confronted him at gunpoint and demanded money.
A struggle apparently erupted, and one of the men shot Wittenbel in the buttocks and abdomen, Mooney said. Wittenbel was in serious condition Monday at Westlake Community Hospital.
Apparently panicked, the men sped away in a white Oldsmobile without taking any cash. Investigators later tried to find them through the address on their guest registration card, but it turned out to be bogus.
“The funny thing is, they actually paid for their room,” Mooney said. “And they didn’t even get that back.”
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