Links Sought to Moorpark Robbery

Authorities said Friday they don’t have any solid evidence yet to link robberies that occurred this week at four Ventura County Baskin-Robbins stores.

Robberies at the ice cream stores in Moorpark on Thursday and Oxnard on Wednesday were preceded by two such robberies of Ventura stores, one on Tuesday and the first on Monday.

In the most recent case, a slender white male in his early to mid-20s walked into the Moorpark store at 563 W. Los Angeles Ave. about 9 p.m. Thursday, ordered a beverage and then pulled up his shirt to reveal a handgun.

Two employees handed over an undisclosed amount of money and the robber fled on foot, Ventura County Sheriff’s Capt. Keith Parks said. There were no customers in the store at the time, he said.

In a similar robbery Tuesday night at a Ventura shop on Victoria Avenue, a white male described as between 28 and 35 entered a Baskin-Robbins, ordered a drink and then pulled up his shirt to reveal a gun.

On Monday night at a Main Street Baskin-Robbins in Ventura, a white male described as between 40 and 50 years old ordered a drink and then raised his shirt to reveal a gun.

In the Oxnard case Wednesday night, the robber was described as a Latino man, about 27, with a mustache.

Robbers in the Ventura and Oxnard cases all ran off on foot after being given undisclosed sums of cash.

“We have no idea yet if these are related,” Parks said. “They could be or it could be part of some group or it could be an individual or they could be copy-cat crimes.”

Parks said small-time robbers--as these men appear to be--generally hold up businesses that are close to their homes. That is one reason authorities are not sure the same man robbed all four stores, he said.

In the wake of the robberies, employees at Baskin-Robbins stores told media this week that security would be enhanced at some Baskin-Robbins stores.