Mini-Mart Robber Hit Store a 2nd Time, Police Say

A robber who beat a mini-mart clerk with a gun during a Wednesday robbery is believed to be the same man who hit the same Mission Viejo store a month ago, sheriff’s officials said.

The man made off with cash early Wednesday, but not before leaving a clear image on a surveillance tape, said Jim Amormino, spokesman for the Orange County Sheriff’s Department.

The robber is described as a thin Latino in his 30s, about 5 feet 6 inches tall, with a bushy mustache, Amormino said. Officials believe he may live in the area.

The robber entered the shop at the Jeronimo Shell gas station about 1:22 a.m. and ordered the clerk to open the register, Amormino said.

After the clerk, 37, handed over the money, the man hit her twice in the stomach with the gun.

He then “led her by the hair into the bathroom,” Amormino said, where the man threatened to kill her if she left. The clerk escaped and called 911. The woman, whose name was not released, was treated by paramedics but not hospitalized.

Amormino said the man in Wednesday’s robbery also held up the same gas station mini-mart in May. That time, he said, the robber made off with a few hundred dollars after he broke into the cash register while the clerk was elsewhere in the store.

Anyone with information is asked to call (714) 628-7170.