THOUSAND OAKS : Man Admits Theft After Robbery Claim

A Moorpark electronics store clerk who claimed he was robbed outside a Thousand Oaks bank has confessed that he and an accomplice actually stole his store’s receipts, police said Monday.

Richard Antonette, 20, initially told Ventura County sheriff’s detectives that he was held up at gunpoint at 7:45 p.m. Saturday while making a night deposit, said Lt. William Montijo.

Antonette told officers that a black man robbed him at the night-deposit slot of the Bank of America branch at 1440 N. Moorpark Road, but detectives found no suspect, Montijo said.

Then, in a follow-up interview Sunday at the sheriff’s East Valley Station, Antonette admitted that he and an individual he refused to name actually took the money. Antonette told detectives “he needed the money for debts,” Montijo said.

Antonette let detectives into his home to retrieve half the $1,380 that was stolen, which they found in a jar in his bedroom, he said. The rest has not been recovered and detectives are seeking the unidentified accomplice, Montijo said.

Antonette was arrested on suspicion of grand theft and filing a false police report. He was being held at the Ventura County Jail in Ventura in lieu of $5,000 bail.