A Textbook Case: How Not to Rob

Most robbery suspects don’t go out of their way to lead police to their crimes.

But that’s what authorities said Oscar Washington Jr., 26, did Thursday when he apparently panicked and phoned 911 no less than three times while holding a clerk hostage during a botched robbery at a Payless ShoeSource in Costa Mesa.

The first call was to pretend he was a customer reporting the robbery. The second was to confess that he was holding up the store, had a hostage, wanted to negotiate and asked to speak to his mother. The third call was to turn himself in and apologize.

“He just got in over his head,” said Lt. Ron Smith of the Costa Mesa Police Department, shortly after Washington’s arrest. “He didn’t formulate a plan. Things just seemed to start tumbling out of his brain. When it started falling apart, he apologized.”

According to police, the unarmed suspect arrived at the store at 9 a.m. as clerk James Stevenson, 23, opened for business. Washington pretended to be a customer, browsing through the store’s merchandise, when he slipped Stevenson a note that read “Put the money in the box,” police said.

Stevenson complied, putting $75 in bills and quarters into a box, then triggered a silent alarm. Police arrived on the scene at 9:13 a.m. and were later joined by a SWAT team.

The suspect, seeing police through the window, tied up Stevenson with phone cord and put him in a back room. Washington then began the first of several calls to 911, police said. He initially claimed he was a customer who had witnessed the robbery.

“We think this was giving him time while he looked for a way to escape,” Smith said.

After a few minutes, the suspect called again to identify himself as the robber and say he had a handgun. He said he wanted to negotiate and speak with his mother. Minutes later, he called a third time, admitting he had no weapon and wanted to turn himself in.

Stevenson escaped unharmed and told police the suspect had been pleasant during the ordeal, which lasted about 90 minutes.

“I was very fortunate. He was actually a nice robber, if there is such a thing,” said Stevenson.

Smith noted that the suspect had a bandanna but didn’t use it to hide his face and said that even the robbery note seemed hastily done.

“At first it said, ‘Put the money in the bag,’ then it had ‘bag’ crossed out and he put ‘box,’ ” Smith said.

Some in the crowd of shoppers and store employees who watched the events unfold from the parking lot also found the suspect’s plan flawed.

Said Costa Mesa resident Robert Wade: “It’s surprising that they’d want to rob a Payless.”