OXNARD : Police Search for Stereo Store Robbers

Oxnard police are searching for four armed robbers who took over an Oxnard stereo store, pistol-whipping the owner and an employee before fleeing with $10,000 in cash and electronics, police and witnesses said.

The thieves--three men and a woman--entered Muntz Stereo, 1363 Saviers Road, about 12:25 p.m. Tuesday, police said. They pretended to browse for several minutes, then pulled guns on owner Florentino Chavez, 35, and his brother-in-law, Ramiro Andrade. No one else was in the glass-front store, said Rick Paz, the store’s manager.

Chavez told police that he and Andrade were forced to go into a back room, where the woman bound both men with duct tape, covering their mouths, feet and hands.

The robbers took about $800 from the register and about two dozen pieces of stereo equipment, Paz said. They also took watches from Chavez and Andrade. Paz said the total loss was about $10,000.

During the robbery, the thieves struck Chavez in the head with a small-caliber handgun and hit Andrade in the neck and on his side, Paz said. Neither man sought hospital treatment.

The robbers were in the store three to four minutes, witnesses said. “They said if we called the police they would kill us,” said Chavez, who has owned the store for two years.

The robbers ran out the front of the store and drove away in a yellow Datsun pickup with a camper shell, police said.