Gunman Takes Cash From Pet Store

In a crime more like a bank robbery than a retail takeover heist, a man walked into a Moorpark pet store Monday night with a hand-written note and a gun.

The note instructed the employee--who had just closed Pet Life at 139 W. Los Angeles Ave. in the Hughes Plaza for the night--to go into the bathroom, according to sheriff’s deputies in Moorpark. The employee had let the man into the shop when he knocked on the back door.

Through the note, the man also threatened to shoot the employee if she emerged. The man--cloaked in a black cloth mask and dark hooded sweatshirt--then took an undisclosed amount of money. The 20-year-old employee was not harmed.

“It’s the first time we’ve had a robbery where the suspect hands a note with written instructions to the victim. It’s almost like a demand note in a bank robbery,” said Sheriff’s Sgt. Frank O’Hanlon.