Three Stores in Huntington Beach Hit by Robbers

Three stores were robbed at gunpoint within 80 minutes Wednesday afternoon, but police said they were not certain if they were connected because descriptions of the suspects varied widely.

The first attack occurred shortly after 4:30 p.m. when a man walked into the Great American Yogurt store, in the 19000 block of Beach Boulevard, showed a clerk a handgun tucked in his waistband and demanded money, said Officer J.B. Hume of the Huntington Beach Police Department.

The suspect, whom police described as a 5-foot, 9-inch black man, about 35 years old and weighing about 200 pounds, left the store with an undisclosed amount of cash.

About an hour later, a man walked up to an employee at the Hair Shack, in the 10100 block of Adams Avenue, showed a handgun in his waistband, and demanded the store’s money, Hume said. Hume described that robber, who also fled on foot after taking an unknown amount of cash, as about 6 feet tall and 19 to 20 years of age, with a dark complexion.

The third store, Glo White Florist, in the 9000 block of Atlanta Avenue, was hit at 5:50 p.m. by an armed man who said “this is a robbery.” After the suspect displayed the gun in his waistband, the employee ran out of the store, Hume said. The suspect followed and was seen getting into a red Firebird parked nearby, police said.

Hume described the third suspect as a white man in his late 20s, about 6 feet tall with blond hair.

The three stores are within four miles of each other.