THOUSAND OAKS : Gunman Takes $3,500 From Bookstore

Brandishing an automatic handgun, an unidentified man forced a lone employee of B. Dalton’s bookstore in Thousand Oaks to open the store’s safe early Monday, stealing $3,500, a Ventura County Sheriff’s Department spokesman said.

The gunman approached the employee as she was opening the store, the spokesman reported. He forced her into the store and demanded that she open the safe, the report said. After taking the money, the gunman bound her with duct tape and fled. The woman was not injured in the incident. Deputies described the suspect as a man in his 20s wearing a dark baseball cap, white shirt and blue sweat pants.