Topics / CRIME : Robbery Suspect Fails to Elude Police

A youth who allegedly robbed two convenience stores and a woman at a fast-food restaurant temporarily escaped police last Thursday morning by jumping into the Little Dalton Wash, authorities said.

His luck apparently ran out, however, when officers saw a young man climbing out of a curbside drain a few yards from where a police command post had been set up to coordinate the search for the robber, said Glendora Police Officer Brian Summers.

“The officers saw him coming up through a culvert on the curb and sort of walked over and helped him out,” Summers said. “He didn’t put up much of a fight.”

The 17-year-old, whose name was not released because of his age, burst into a 7-Eleven store in West Covina about 1 a.m. armed with a .22-caliber semiautomatic pistol and demanded money, Summers said.

The youth took $80 and then drove with a friend to Glendora, where he held up the clerk at an AM/PM Mini-Mart and fled with $100 about 3 a.m., Summers said.

On his way back to his car, the youth allegedly attempted to get more money from a woman in her car at a Del Taco drive-through. When she took too long rifling in her purse for the money, he gave up and drove off, authorities said.

Azusa police heard a radio report of the robberies and pulled over two young men in a car that matched the description given Glendora officers. They arrested the driver, Shane Lindsey, 20, of Baldwin Park, but the 17-year-old fled on foot.

Summers said police chased the youth until he jumped over a fence and into the wash near Azusa and Paramount avenues. They nabbed him as he climbed out of the storm drain a short time later.

Lindsey and the youth were each charged with two counts of robbery and one count of attempted robbery. Lindsey was in custody at Glendora jail in lieu of $50,000 bond. The 17-year-old is being held at Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall in Downey, Summers said.