Police Teach Merchants the Right Way to Get Robbed

With robberies in the west San Fernando Valley nearly doubling in the past two years, it has become not so much a question of whether a business gets robbed, but when.

So the Los Angeles Police Department on Monday sponsored a seminar at the Warner Center Marriott to teach 200 merchants how to get robbed.

It is not as easy as it sounds.

“We want to make them good victims,” said Detective Al Michelena, who organized the seminar. Michelena meant that he wanted to teach merchants how to keep their heads when confronted with a robber who might shoot at the slightest provocation.

Detectives urged merchants to keep cool, to cooperate with robbers and to pay attention to details that might be helpful later during an investigation.

“That’s what we need,” Detective Bud Mehringer said. “We don’t need anybody trying to be heroes. We need them to recall physical features so we can find these guys.”

Mehringer is one of four detectives assigned to investigate the 130 or so robberies that occur each month in the Los Angeles Police Department’s West Valley Division, which covers Woodland Hills, Encino and Canoga Park.

And while Mehringer’s squad has not grown in the past several years, robberies across the Valley have increased 11% since last year, from 4,244 for the first eight months of 1991 to 4,732 so far this year. Citywide, robberies have increased 5%, from 24,916 to 26,205.

In the West Valley, robberies have jumped 96% since 1990.

Simone Mourad has seen the increase firsthand. His 7-Eleven store at the corner of Saticoy Street and Fallbrook Avenue in West Hills has been robbed eight times in the last 2 1/2 years. Robbers once struck twice in the same week.

Mourad said he encourages his employees to heed the advice of detectives to stay calm and alert during robberies. But, he acknowledged, that is easier said than done.

“We want our clerks to look closely at the robber,” he said. “But once they see the gun, they put all their attention to the gun. I don’t blame them.”

Part of Monday’s seminar included a staged robbery in which police officers armed with toy guns stormed into the conference room and demanded a speaker’s watch. Participants were then asked to reconstruct the incident and give as much detail about the robbers as they could remember.