Police Arrest 3 Men, Seek 4th in Canyon Country Store Burglary

Three men, including a clerk who told sheriff’s deputies he had been robbed at gunpoint, have been arrested on suspicion of burglarizing a convenience store in Canyon Country.

Santa Clarita residents Matthew Zabin, 23, Allen Bricker, 27, and Todd Hawkins, 20, are facing charges of burglary and grand theft for allegedly taking a safe containing $14,000 Thursday morning from the Arco mini-mart on Sierra Highway, said Sgt. Howard Fairchild of the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station.

Deputies are still looking for 18-year-old Jason Singer, also of Santa Clarita, in connection with the incident.

Zabin, a cashier at the store, reported that the Sierra Highway store was robbed shortly before 2 a.m. Thursday, Fairchild said.

Fairchild said detectives were suspicious of what Zabin told them. They said they found no physical evidence to support his report of having been robbed by two men and then handcuffed at the back of the store.

“Just the nature of the crime was that it didn’t seem real,” Fairchild said. “It’s not that it wasn’t possible, but . . . “

The four allegedly broke open the safe with a sledgehammer, removed the money inside and dumped it over an embankment in the Bear Divide area of Sand Canyon.

Santa Clarita resident Raymond Jackson, 23, has been charged with receiving stolen property for allegedly taking a share of the money after the incident.