SOUTH COUNTY : Holdups, Robberies Under Investigation

The Sheriff’s Department is investigating holdups of two Leisure World residents and robberies at three restaurants in separate crime sprees over the weekend, deputies said Monday.

The incidents involving the Leisure World residents took place Saturday in the parking lot of two shopping plazas located within blocks of each other.

Sheriff’s Lt. Dick Olson said a man armed with a short metal club approached an 80-year-old man as he was getting out of his car. When the robber demanded money, his intended victim yelled for help. The would-be robber fled in a pickup truck driven by a woman.

About 10 minutes later at a nearby shopping mall, an 84-year-old woman was putting groceries in her car when she was approached by a man who offered to help her.

The man then grabbed her purse and jumped into a pickup truck driven by a woman.

In an unrelated crime spree, three men were being sought in connection with robberies at three fast-food restaurants in Mission Viejo and San Clemente on Friday night.

Olson said the first of the robberies occurred about 10:45 p.m., when three men walked into a Jack-in-the-Box Restaurant at 28651 Marguerite Parkway and threatened the manager with a gun.

Two other employees were called into the office and made to lie down on the floor. When no money was found in the safe, the manager was forced to turn over money in the cash register. The robbers locked all three employees in a cooler and fled. No injuries were reported.

Five minutes later, two men walked into a Tony Roma’s restaurant at 28621 Marguerite Parkway, put a gun to the manager’s head and demanded that he open the safe. When the manager told them he didn’t have the keys, the gunmen settled for money from the cash register.

Olson said that at some point during the robbery, the manager was struck on the head with the handgun but was not seriously injured. Again, restaurant employees were put into a cooler before the robbers fled.

Shortly after 11 p.m., two armed men entered a McDonald’s restaurant at 650 Pico Ave. in San Clemente. They jumped over the counter and took money out of the cash registers, then fled in a silver Plymouth Conquest.

During the robbery, one customer was hit on the head with a gun by one of the robbers, Olson said. The customer was treated for facial injuries at Samaritan Medical Center-San Clemente.