Kmart Held Up by Man Hiding in Store

For the second time in a week, a K mart store was robbed at gunpoint by a man who apparently hid in the store until after closing and pulled a weapon on employees before loading the cash into a shopping cart and making his escape.

The crimes are similar to three other recent robberies at K mart stores in Los Angeles County, authorities said.

Police were searching Sunday for the suspect, who is accused of robbing the Ventura K mart store on Victoria Avenue Saturday night.

Ventura police said the robbery occurred about 10:40 p.m. as a female employee was pushing a cart carrying a money box toward the store’s office. A man in his 20s with sunglasses and a bandanna covering his face, who was hiding near the office, stepped out and pointed a gun at the employee. He forced her to open the office safe and load money into the money box.

The suspect put the money in the shopping cart and pushed it out the front door. He abandoned the cart at a nearby restaurant and fled with an undisclosed amount of money, police said. No one was injured in the incident, police said.

On Oct. 19, a man with a handgun forced 13 employees to lie face-down on the floor while he stole an undetermined amount of cash from the K mart store at 325 Hampshire Road in Thousand Oaks.

Ventura County Sheriff’s Sgt. Rod Mendoza said the man hid in the store until after closing.

After forcing the workers into an employee lounge, he dumped the cash from a cash box into a shopping cart, Mendoza said.

He pushed the cart out the back door, where a second suspect was waiting in a Ford Thunderbird, Mendoza said.