Restaurant and Store Held Up in Separate Cases

In two apparently unrelated incidents, armed robbers burst into a Thousand Oaks restaurant and a Ventura drug store this weekend, brandishing handguns and leaving with fistfuls of stolen cash, authorities said Saturday.

In Thousand Oaks, four men walked through the rear door of the Sizzler at 401 N. Moorpark Road at 11:30 p.m. Friday after the restaurant had closed for the night, sheriff’s deputies said. Clutching handguns, the men forced the employees to a back room and made them lie on the floor, deputies said.

One of the men then took the restaurant manager to the office and had him open the safe, deputies said.

After taking an unknown amount of cash from the safe, the four men left the restaurant, climbed into a large dark-blue four-door car and drove south on Moorpark Road, deputies said.

Local law enforcement agencies searched the area, but the suspects were not found, deputies said.

The other incident took place at 10:45 p.m. Friday at Sav-On Drugs on Telegraph Road in Ventura. A man walked up to employee Bruce Bennett, who was working in the photo department, displayed a handgun and demanded money, police said.

The gunman--described as a Hispanic male, about 35 years old, 5 foot 10 and 160 pounds--fled the store with the cash, said police, who are still searching for the suspect.