9 Stores, Restaurants Robbed by 3 Gunmen : Crime: The spree hits targets from Canoga Park to Hollywood. Police are investigating holdups at two Valley recycling firms.

Three robbers on a spree held up at least nine convenience stores and fast-food restaurants from Canoga Park to Hollywood, making off with hundreds of dollars from some of their targets, Los Angeles police said Thursday.

“I think it’s just a random thing that one night these guys just went kind of nuts,” said West Valley Division LAPD Detective Larry Kagele. “Usually you don’t have this type of thing happening where someone can pull that many robberies in one night.”

The spree began in the North Hollywood area where a video store and a Thai restaurant were robbed by two gunmen Wednesday evening, authorities said. Next, a Chatsworth convenience store was hit early Thursday morning, followed by two more convenience stores and a taco shop, all in the western San Fernando Valley. Police did not have a total of the amount stolen.

The robbers, who posed as customers, were armed with blued steel pistols, police said.

“They ordered everybody to lie on the floor,” Kagele said. “Then they committed the robberies and took most anything they could get their hands on, including cigarettes, money and lighters.”

Police believe the rampage continued into Hollywood, where gunmen of the same appearance held up two convenience stores on Sunset Boulevard, followed by another convenience store robbery in Panorama City.

Witnesses told police two of the bandits were Latino youths, between 18 and 24, dressed in faded jeans and dark blue jackets. A third youth was spotted with the gunmen inside a black, late-model Nissan sedan, believed to be the getaway car.

“Because so many of the robberies were committed in the Valley they could be Valley people,” Kagele said of the suspects.

Authorities are enhancing images of the robbers that were captured on store surveillance cameras. The suspects’ Nissan was also caught on video, police said.

North Hollywood Division Detective Rick Jamieson said investigators are also trying to determine whether two more robberies committed Thursday at Valley recycling businesses, including one in which an employee was shot, are connected to the spree.

The employee, who is expected to survive, was shot twice around 8:30 a.m. during a robbery at a recycling business near Vanowen Street and Lankershim Boulevard, Jamieson said. About 15 minutes later, another recycling business was robbed in the 7500 block of Lankershim Boulevard.

Jamieson said that unlike the car used in the earlier robberies, the gunmen who held up the recycling businesses were seen driving a reddish-brown Toyota van. “I actually think [the same robbers] may be involved, but it could be completely unrelated,” he said.

“When you have a big spree,” he said, the crimes may be part of “some sort of gang initiation . . . But if it is the same people involved in all of these, then it’s more than just a one-night deal.”

Devi Singh, 49, owner of a 7-Eleven in Northridge that was robbed early Thursday morning, said she was “worried.”

“We were never robbed in 10 years,’ Singh said. “I don’t know what could have happened last night and it scares our customers, too.”

Singh said the gunmen ordered a customer to the floor before stealing packs of cigarettes and money. Singh’s business was one of at least six 7-Elevens that were targeted by the thieves, police said.

Other business owners hit said that the bandits jumped store counters and pointed guns at the clerks. One manager said the robbers came just after his plainclothes security officer had left for the evening.

One of the robbers kicked a store clerk at a convenience store on Lindley Avenue in Reseda, police said. Shots were fired during the Hollywood robberies, but nobody was hit.

In response to the rash of crimes, patrol officers were alerted to keep an eye out for the gunmen’s vehicles. A perimeter was established late Thursday afternoon after a van matching the description of the one used in the recycling robberies was spotted in North Hollywood, but no arrests were made.

Robbery detectives from throughout the Valley and Los Angeles discussed the string of holdups at a previously scheduled meeting Thursday, police said.

“We are going to be responding to these robberies,” said LAPD Capt. Val Pannicia, commanding officer of the West Valley Division, but declined to give specifics.

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Wave of Robberies Los Angeles police are searching for three robbers who may be responsible for nearly a dozen holdups Wednesday night and early Thursday, mostly in the San Fernando Valley. Included in the spree were two convenience store robberies in the Hollywood area. 1. Video Store 5424 Laurel Canyon Blvd. 8:10 p.m., Wednesday $300 *

2. Thai Restaurant 10650 Riverside Drive 8:55 p.m., Wednesday $100 *

3. Convenicence Store 20861 Lassen St. 2:30 a.m., Thursday $400 *

4. Taco Shop 7300 Topanga Canyon Blvd. 2:40 a.m., Thursday $615 *

5. Convenience Store 18916 Roscoe Blvd. 3:04 a.m., Thursday $280 *

6. Convenience Store 7153 Lindely Ave. 3:30 a.m.,Thursday Unknown amount *

7. Convenience Store 8960 Woodman Ave. 6 a.m., Thursday Unknown amount. *

8. Recycling Business Vanowen St. and Lankershim Blvd. 8:30 a.m., Thursday. Unknown amount; employee shot. *

9. Recycling Business 7568 Lankershim Blvd. 8:45 a.m. Unknown amount Source: LAPD