Unarmed Security Guard Chases Supermarket Robbers

Said Miss, an unarmed security guard at the Chatsworth Plaza shopping center on Devonshire Street, took it personally when two gunmen robbed the Ralphs supermarket in the center Thursday night.

Miss, 25, pointed out that he knows all the cashiers and managers by name. “The people that work there are like my family,” he said. “I was upset that they were robbing the place because I know all the employees.”

So the slender guard jumped into his Dodge pickup truck and chased the pair through the neighborhood, a wild pursuit that ended when the robbers whipped their Cadillac around on a dead-end street and rammed into his truck, totaling it.

“Evidently they saw him following them,” said Sgt. Larry Taylor of the Los Angeles Police Department’s Devonshire Division. “They pulled a U-turn and he [Miss] started backing up, high speed, down Canoga Avenue.”

Police said the men bashed the pickup twice, with the impact causing one man to drop his handgun. The two robbers, described as males between 18 and 25 years old, also slammed into a minivan and injured three people before ditching their car in a parking lot and fleeing on foot, Taylor said.

Bob Macias, owner of a diner in the same shopping plaza, called Miss a hero whose quick thinking might have put an end to a rash of robberies around the center, located in the 21500 block of Devonshire Street.

“I think he’s put these guys out of business,” Macias said.

A hero? The LAPD’s Taylor wasn’t so sure. “He’s unarmed and they were armed,” he said. “It’s a good idea to be a good witness and not be a hero on something like this.”

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Miss said he wasn’t sure how he would manage to replace his truck, saying he had only liability insurance. “I’m hoping for a miracle--I’m hoping they [the robbers] have insurance,” he said.

Miss, who borrowed his employer’s car to get to work Friday, said he has no regrets. “It will be worth it if they catch these guys,” he said.