Drive-Through Danger : Crime: Robberies and attacks increase on customers using drive-up windows at fast-food restaurants. Some chains increase security.

For perennially rushed Angelenos, one institution may be more beloved than the fast-food restaurant: the fast-food restaurant with a drive-through lane. However, police are concerned that drive-throughs also are becoming a vulnerable target for robbers.

At one El Pollo Loco in Inglewood, four women--three using the drive-through, the other returning to her car in the parking lot--have been attacked since October. In Riverside two weeks ago, two men allegedly jumped a motorist ordering at a Del Taco, sped off and got into a crash that killed two people.

In response to such incidents, police are warning drive-through customers to exercise caution, particularly at night.

“Your safety is not a convenience,” said William Longacre, a Los Angeles Police Department crime prevention specialist.

Police emphasize that attacks on drive-through customers are still rare. But they also say that crimes in the drive-through lane--where half of all fast-food transactions now occur--are increasing.

Police statistics do not break down such attacks, but police officials in a variety of Southern California departments unanimously believe that they are occurring more frequently.

Even before the attacks at the El Pollo Inglewood store, officials of the fast-food chain had begun improving drive-through security at their 196 California outlets by increasing lighting, cutting back foliage and removing signs that kept police from seeing in and employees from seeing out of the restaurants.

Police say the latest attacks have highlighted the liabilities inherent in many drive-through lanes--liabilities that few motorists ever consider.

Most drive-through lanes are not as well lit at night as other parking lot areas, police say. The order boards frequently are located out of sight of employees inside the restaurant and are often surrounded by shrubbery. After the dinner rush, it is not uncommon to see a single vehicle in the lane.

“Criminals . . . pick the easiest target,” Longacre said. In this case: a customer with a pocketful of money, a car already running and the window down.

Each of the four incidents at the Inglewood El Pollo Loco at Century and Crenshaw boulevards took place at night, and each time a woman was the sole occupant of the car. Police believe that the same unidentified man--who carried a gun, knife or screwdriver in each attack--may have committed the crimes. The women were forced to the floors of their cars and driven to a nearby location. After robbing and sexually assaulting them, the assailant drove the women back to the restaurant and walked away.

Drive-through crime frequently turns violent, police say.

In 1992 at a Jack in the Box in Watts, a man leaned through the window of 30-year-old Anita Robertson’s van and shot her in the chest when she refused to hand over her purse. Her two children, a friend and her friend’s two children were with her in the vehicle when she died.

In April, 1993, a Colorado woman was shot in the chest at the drive-through of an Ontario hamburger stand. She survived.

Eight months later in Corona, two 16-year-olds pulled a BB gun on a husband and wife in the drive-through of a Carl’s Jr. and demanded their car. Unbeknown to the youths, the couple were both Orange County sheriff’s deputies. The husband shot one of the boys in the back, killing him.

The random nature of such crimes can be unnerving

“There’s a false sense of security,” said Gloria Romero, the victim of a 1993 carjacking at a Highland Park McDonald’s drive-through. Her 8-year-old daughter was next to her when a man reached into Romero’s BMW, wrapped his arm around her neck, and threatened to “blow your brains out.”

The assailant fled in their car, leaving the mother and daughter standing in the drive-through lane.

“Here we are at McDonald’s--ordering a Happy Meal,” said Romero, a visiting professor of psychology and Chicano studies at Loyola-Marymount University.

The few times that she has subsequently entered a drive-through, Romero has followed many of the precautions that police suggest: scanning the parking lot and bushes, watching her mirrors to see who is behind her and patronizing only well-lit locations. When she feels uncomfortable with the situation for any reason, she finds another place to eat.

In Los Angeles--and most cities nationwide--the drive-through lane has become far and away the most popular way to order at fast-food restaurants, said Bob Sandelman of Sandelman and Associates Inc., an Orange County food-service consulting firm. During the last quarter of 1994, 49% of Southland fast-food customers ordered their meals at the drive-up window, while 22% ate inside the restaurant. About 25% got their orders to go, and 4% had them delivered.

Roland Spongberg, president of WKS Restaurant Corp., which owns three El Pollo Loco franchises--including the Inglewood outlet where the recent attacks took place--said that about 35% of his business comes through the drive-up window. Even before the rapes, the Inglewood outlet had improved its exterior lighting, including the drive-though lane’s, he said. In the wake of those attacks, Spongberg said, he decided to move the order board so employees could see it from inside the restaurant and to fence off an alley that adjoins the drive-through lane--an alley that police believe the rapist may have used to stage the crimes.

The Irvine-based El Pollo Loco chain said it is spending $5,000 to $7,000 to improve security at each of its California outlets.

“If you go into an El Pollo Loco nowadays, there’s not a bush big enough to hide behind,” said Laer Pearce, a company spokesman.

Several other major chains, including McDonald’s and Jack in the Box, declined to discuss safety procedures at their restaurants. But many outlets now employ mirrors and even video cameras in the drive-through lane.

“Safety becomes a bigger concern every year,” said Ray Perry, president of El Pollo Loco.