2 Carloads of Youths Robbed at Gunpoint

Within 30 minutes, two groups of teen-agers were robbed at gunpoint during or just after a visit to drive-through fast-food restaurants only a few blocks apart, police said.

Police suspect one robber committed both holdups, accompanied by an accomplice in one instance.

The first victims were four teen-agers who pulled into the driveway of a home in the 5800 block of Woodlake Avenue about 11:30 p.m. Monday, clutching bags of Big Macs from a local McDonald’s, Los Angeles Police Detective Robert Johansen said.

A late-model luxury car pulled into the driveway, and two men got out and approached the group, Johansen said.

The robbers asked the teen-agers “Where are you from?”--a slang inquiry for “What gang are you in?” Johansen said.

After the youths, 14 to 19, denied belonging to a gang, one robber produced a handgun and the two men took the youths’ wallets, netting about $80, Johansen said.

“To add insult to injury,” Johansen said, “they took the kids’ burgers.”

Half an hour later and a few blocks away, a robber held up a car of five teen-agers in a Jack-In-The-Box drive-through, Johansen said. As they waited to order in the parking lot of the fast-food restaurant at Victory Boulevard and Fallbrook Avenue, the robber approached them with a pistol and asked where they were from, then demanded their money, Johansen said.

In both cases the gunman was described as a white man of medium height and build with a goatee and shaved head, about 18-20 years old, Johansen said. During the first robbery he was accompanied by a black man of the same build and age with very short hair, Johansen said.

Such robberies at drive-through restaurants have “been a problem in the past . . . down in South-Central L.A.,” Johansen said, “but we’ve never had anything like this (in the Valley). This was a real shocker.”

The victims “are all clean-cut kids,” not gang members, Johansen said.

Johansen said he assumes the light-colored Acura or Lexus driven by the robbers was stolen, and said he was checking recent auto thefts.

“Usually, when you’re in a car you have safety in numbers,” Johansen said. “Hopefully this is a one-shot deal.”