LAGUNA NIGUEL : Beauty Shop Robber Takes Cash Register

A man attempting to rob a beauty supply shop Wednesday night had trouble opening the store’s cash register--so he took it with him.

The robber made off with more than $300 in cash along with the store’s Casio-brand cash register which employees estimate weighs about 40 pounds.

“He kept saying, ‘Which button am I supposed to push?,’ ” said Yen Nguyen, the hair stylist who was held up at gunpoint. “If you don’t push the right button, the cash register makes a beeping noise. I kept hearing it beep. I think that’s why he just took it.”

The man walked into the shop, in the 28000 block of Golden Lantern Street, at 8 p.m. on Wednesday. He pointed a gun at Nguyen, ordered her into a back room, made her lie on the floor and put a jacket over her head, Sheriff’s Lt. Dick Olson said.

Nguyen, who was not injured, said she heard others in the shop and said the man probably had help carrying the the cash register out the door.

“It happens every once in awhile,” Olson said of the cash register theft. “People have also taken small safes rather than try and force them open right there. I wouldn’t say it’s common, but if it’s portable, there are times when they just pick it up and go.”