Man Armed With a Garden Sprayer Robs Gas Station
A man brandishing a garden sprayer stole about $475 from an Arco gas station in Huntington Beach Thursday, police said.
Lt. Larry Miller of the Huntington Beach Police Department gave this account of the incident:
The man entered the station in the 16700 block of Beach Boulevard about 4 p.m. He was wearing a black ski mask, white painter’s mask, goggles and yellow plastic gloves, and carrying a yellow gardening sprayer. The man took a soft drink from a refrigerator display and brought it up to the counter.
He then demanded money from the clerk, who took bills from the cash register and put them into the man’s backpack. After securing the money, the man sprayed the clerk with an unidentified orange liquid and then fled, running east on Terry Drive.
The Arco clerk was uninjured, and police determined that the substance in the sprayer was nontoxic. Police later found $75, the ski mask and a glove in a flood control ditch near the station.
Miller said officers were still searching for the robber late Thursday.
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