Deputies Lower the Boom Box : Crime: Routine call at a market rings up three arrests, four firings and the recovery of a twice-stolen tape player.

A routine shoplifting call at dawn Thursday took an odd turn when two grocery employees were busted on suspicion of nabbing an already-stolen boom box from the suspected shoplifter’s Buick in full view of a patrol car camera.

In the end, deputies made three arrests and saw the manager of a San Clemente Ralphs store fire his entire midnight shift, Sheriff’s Lt. Rich Paddock said.

And deputies plan to return the twice-stolen tape recorder to the owner of a nearby bakery.

“The German Home Bakery got their boom box back, three guys go to jail, and [deputies] solve three burglaries in a half an hour,” Paddock said. “We thought it had a happy ending.”

Sheriff’s officials received a call about 6 a.m. that Ralphs employees had caught a man stealing about $170 worth of batteries at the store in the 600 block of Camino de Los Mares, Paddock said.

When Deputy Jeffrey Passalaqua arrived at the store, he was met by a group of graveyard-shift employees who told him the suspect was upstairs with the store manager. They also pointed out the suspected shoplifter’s car.

Sitting inside the gray 1980 Buick was a boombox matching the description of one reported stolen hours earlier from the German Home Bakery two blocks away, Paddock said.

Passalaqua, who had just taken a burglary report at the bakery, made note of the stereo and went in the store. But when the deputy returned to check out the boombox, it was gone.

The store employees, who were still hanging around outside the store, denied any involvement. But Paddock said that when deputies played a patrol car videotape that had been trained on the workers, the tape told a different story.

“You see two Ralphs employees run over to the car and steal” the boombox, Paddock said.

Rafael Gonzales, 24, and Victor Guerrero, 26, were arrested on suspicion of vehicle burglary and booked into Orange County Jail. Both were fired on the spot by store manager Robert Partridge, who also fired his two other graveyard-shift employees for witnessing the burglary and saying nothing, Paddock said.

As for the suspected shoplifter, Robert C. Sandman, 34, booked into Orange County jail on suspicion of stealing $170 worth of batteries. He is also being investigated for shoplifting a pile of razors from the store last week, Paddock said.

As for the German Home Bakery, employee Renate Reilly said Thursday was a quiet day at the bakery without the tape player. Also stolen in the night burglary was the bakery’s scale and some quarters from the cash register, she said.