4 Men Arrested in Theft of Cigarettes

Four men were arrested on the Ventura Freeway in Oxnard on Wednesday after a robbery at a Port Hueneme cigarette store in which several cartons of cigarettes were stuffed into a bag and hauled out the front door, police said.

Damon Tolbert and Donte Ross, both 21, and Robert Jones and Rashad Populus, both 19, were arrested about 2:20 p.m. after the robbery 20 minutes earlier at Cigarettes Cheaper at 565 W. Channel Islands Blvd., police said.

The Los Angeles men were spotted by Oxnard Officer Maria Pena, who saw the getaway car headed south on the freeway after Port Hueneme police issued a radio bulletin about the car and a partial license plate number.

Oxnard and California Highway Patrol officers closed all lanes of the freeway between Vineyard and Rose avenues to stop the vehicle, according to Port Hueneme Police Sgt. Jerry Beck.

“They pulled over before the officers even turned on their lights,” Beck said.

At the cigarette store, clerk Rose Thompson, 49, and customer Dorothy Mort, also 49, called police after three men came in and started stuffing cartons of various brands of cigarettes into a large plastic garbage bag, police said.

Mort tried to stop the robbers by holding the front door closed, but the trio rammed the door, knocking Mort to the ground, and then jumped into a car where a driver was waiting, police said. Mort was not injured.

Several cartons of cigarettes were recovered inside the getaway car. The men were being held in Ventura County Jail on suspicion of robbery.