5 Armed Robbers Storm Japanese Restaurant : Investigation: Police suspect experienced outsiders cased the secluded eatery. Workers and patrons were locked in a walk-in refrigerator.

Sushi chef Koji Veda had just finished eating a heaping plate of spaghetti Thursday night when two armed men stormed through the front door of the Hiyama Japanese Restaurant & Sushi Bar.

But as he tried to escape through the kitchen door, he ran head-on into another gunman, clad entirely in black, a dark ski mask covering his face.

Five men, all armed with guns, had taken the small, secluded restaurant by storm--entering simultaneously from front and back doors at about 10:45 p.m., just before closing time.

The thieves--their faces hidden by ski masks, bandannas and baseball caps pulled tightly over their eyes--robbed the restaurant of an undisclosed amount of cash, forced employees and customers into a walk-in refrigerator and then fled.

Thousand Oaks Sgt. Frank O’Hanlon said the “takeover robbery”--the first of its kind in an area restaurant in more than a year--appeared to be done by experienced criminals from outside the county, triggering concerns from residents and other law enforcement officials that crime from Los Angeles is creeping into the Conejo Valley.

“It’s unbelievable for this place,” said Peter Repich, a Newbury Park resident eating lunch Friday at the restaurant at 74 Skyline Drive. “I can’t believe this is happening to us now. We’ve been secluded here for a long time. I hope that we don’t become another [San Fernando] Valley.”

The robbery occurred as four employees were preparing to close the restaurant, while eating their evening meal. Three customers, regulars known to the staff only by their first names, lingered at the sushi bar over their last sips of beer.

Owner Michi Sawada was in the kitchen joking with his staff. Misael Aguilar Morales, a waiter, was at the stove piling noodles onto his plate. And Judy Paculan, a cashier, was at the cash register.

“When they came in, I thought they were customers,” Paculan said. “When I saw how they were dressed, I thought it was just a joke. But then I saw the gun and I ran away from the cash register.”

Guns raised, the men forced Sawada and Aguilar into the dining room along with chef Veda and told everyone to lie face down on the floor with their hands over their heads.

“He put a gun to my head and said I should lie down,” said Aguilar, who has worked at the restaurant for eight years. “Never in my life was I so scared.”

Meanwhile, one gunman emptied the cash register, which Paculan had left open. He then commanded her to take him to the safe.

She protested, saying that the restaurant had no safe.

“He put the gun to my head and said, ‘You are going to die if you don’t give me the money,’ ” she said.

She then agreed to lead some of the gunmen to a locked office, where they made her empty a series of filing cabinets.

Finding no more money, they continued to push for the location of the nonexistent safe. When she told him again that there was no safe, he fired a bullet into the wall.

“I thought, ‘I am dead,’ ” said Paculan, who has worked for almost two years at the restaurant.

Still face down on the floor outside, Veda said he heard the shot. One gunman repeatedly kicked his legs and told him to remain still.

“I though she was dead,” he said. “I thought I was going to die. I was thinking of my family in Japan. Then I heard her voice and knew that she was OK.”

Paculan then took the man back to the cash register station and pointed out two boxes where extra change and tips were kept.

After emptying those boxes, the gunmen herded everyone into a small walk-in refrigerator, which they fastened shut with a piece of wire.

About 10 minutes later, after they believed the thieves had left, the group escaped from the 26-degree cooler by using an inside safety latch.

Once free, they discovered the gunmen had cut all of the phone lines except for one tucked behind the sushi bar. They called police and activated an alarm, which they typically turn on only as they leave the restaurant at night.

In the process of robbing the restaurant, the men also stole a watch that Aguilar had left on the counter and robbed owner Sawada of his pocket money.

“In the 14 years that I have been in business here, nothing like this has ever happened before,” said Sawada, who moved his business from Van Nuys, where he had been robbed twice in one year. “Now we will have to start locking the doors at night.”

Mike Markey, a Thousand Oaks councilman and Compton homicide detective who frequents the restaurant, visited the eatery Friday to console the staff.

“I am a little upset about it because the owner is a personal friend of mine,” he said. “The people who eat here all know each other. It is the last place that you think would ever get hit like that.”

Calling the robbery “sophisticated,” Markey said it is very likely that it was planned.

“One of my flags went up when I heard that it was this particular restaurant,” he said. “Because it is really out of the way, that insinuates that somebody has been there and cased it.”

Although Thousand Oaks has ranked as one of the top three safest large cities in the nation for the past six years, residents eating at the restaurant Friday said they were concerned that crime is on the rise.

“The minute they announce that this is the least crime-filled area, something like this happens,” said Ronni Stiles, a Moorpark resident. “I don’t think they should publicize it.”