Police Ask Public’s Help in Search for Robber

Police are asking the public for help in their search for a robber who usually targets car parts stores and has struck seven times in the last month, including twice in Anaheim.

The robber typically shows a clerk a handgun tucked into his waistband and then calmly waits for the money, Lt. Ted LaBahn said. In one case, the robber spent almost an hour in a store before robbing it, he said.

“This one is calm and cool,” LaBahn said. “He’s about the coolest of anybody I’ve heard of. But I don’t know what he’d do if somebody didn’t do exactly what he told them to do.”

The robber first struck in Anaheim at 9 p.m. July 2 at the Super Trak Auto Parts store at 2072 E. Lincoln Ave. He returned to the city 20 days later to hold up workers at the Super K-Mart at 1095 N. Pullman St., near the Riverside Freeway, LaBahn said.

The same man is suspected of a string of seven robberies and attempted robberies across three counties, including auto parts stores in San Bernardino, Temecula, Chino and Redlands, LaBahn said.

He is described as black, in his late 20s or early 30s, taller than six feet and from 185 to 220 pounds, police said. He often wears a black flight jacket with an orange lining and sleeve zippers and carries a black motorcycle helmet. He also wears prescription glasses.

After one robbery he was seen getting into the passenger side of a black, full-size pickup truck, possibly a Ford or Chevrolet, LaBahn said. A second person accompanied the gunman during the robbery of the Super K-Mart in Anaheim, police said.

Anyone with information on the robberies or the two suspects is asked to call Anaheim investigators at (714) 254-1955.