Apologetic Gunman Holds Up Newbury Park Garden Store

Scared off from one robbery attempt by a stern storekeeper, a teenage bandit robbed a Newbury Park garden store--but not before apologizing repeatedly to the clerk, police said Saturday.

An hour after Friday’s heist at the Garden Center on Newbury Road, the young robber called the shop and again told employees he was sorry he had robbed the store at gunpoint.

The incident started at Mail Boxes Etc., 1560 Newbury Road, when a would-be robber wearing a Halloween skeleton mask pointed what looked to be a blue steel police .38 special revolver at owner Ken Dickey. That’s when Dickey got angry.

“He never said anything,” said the Navy veteran. “He simply pointed a gun at me . . . I said ‘I don’t like a gun being pointed at me, get the hell out of here.’ And he left.”

Dickey calmly finished serving the customers in his store before calling police.

By then the robber had gone a couple of hundred yards down the street and robbed the garden store. This time he was more assertive, demanding money and threatening to shoot the young female clerk who had only moved to Southern California from Maine five weeks ago, said store owner Tess Hoff.

“I know he’s remorseful, I know he’s sorry and I know he’s a kid,” she said, “but he has ruined her California life. He’s taken her trust, her faith, she’s afraid to come back to work now.”

The robber, who took an undisclosed amount of cash, was described as about 18 years old and was last seen running behind the adjacent businesses. A search using a helicopter and police dog was unsuccessful.