Fast-Food Robber Tries Something New

A man responsible for a string of Baskin-Robbins robberies may have switched from ice cream to pizza, police said Wednesday.

A Little Caesar’s Pizza on Telephone Road in Ventura was robbed Tuesday night, and officials say it may be the same man who robbed three Baskin-Robbins shops, two in Ventura and one in Moorpark.

From talking to the officer who responded to the robbery, “it sounds like the same guy,” said Ventura Police Det. Tom Randall.

Authorities said a man wearing dirty jeans, a black sweater and a black cap entered the pizza shop about 9 p.m. and ordered a drink. After he was served, the robber lifted his sweater to reveal a semiautomatic pistol tucked into his waistband and demanded money. He then fled on foot. No customers were in the store at the time and no one was hurt.

Police note that it is the same method used by a robber who has hit the three Baskin-Robbins stores.

Randall said the robber may have felt comfortable at the pizza place because it is similar in layout to an ice cream shop and both usually employ young people.

“He’s just looking for easy marks,” Randall said. “Places where he can get in and get out real quickly, places where young kids are working that aren’t going to pose a threat.”

A description of the pizza bandit is also similar to that of the ice cream robber: He is white, in his late 20s, about 6 feet tall and weighs 170 to 180 pounds.

Anyone with information on the robberies is asked to call Randall at 339-4477.