BURBANK : Alleged Robbers Caught Counting

A pair of robbers who stopped to count $2,000 in cash soon after they made their getaway found that move to be a critical mistake, authorities said.

The men were apparently divvying up the money inside a parked car Monday, moments before police officers arrested them for robbing a Burbank check-cashing office an hour earlier.

“They were seen inside the car. After their arrest, when officers looked back inside the car, a third of the money was in the back seat and the rest of it was scattered on the floor in front, as if dividing the money into thirds,” said Burbank Police Sgt. Scott Wilson.

Edgar Arnoldo Cortez and Hugo Leonel Barillas, both 30, along with a third man who escaped arrest, allegedly robbed the Valley Check Cashers office at 916 W. Burbank Blvd. The men reportedly ordered a clerk and customer to lie down on the floor while they took money from cash drawers and left in a car.

As the men fled, the driver of an armored truck delivering money to the office jotted down the suspects’ license plate information, said Wilson.

Through a check of motor vehicle information, police determined Cortez was the registered owner and went to his South Los Angeles apartment.

Inside his apartment, police found an additional $5,000 in cash and blank checks believed stolen from another check-cashing office in Whittier.

Both men were charged with kidnaping and robbery and are being held on $500,000 bail in a Burbank jail.