A crew of armed robbers struck the Arco station in Rheem Valley shortly before 8 p.m. tonight, Sunday, roughing up an employee and robbing him at gunpoint before fleeing through Lafayette and onto northbound I680.
We have learned the getaway vehicle used in the theft, a black or dark blue Nissan Sentra with paper plates, has crashed on Hillcrest Avenue in Antioch with heavily armed teams of police surrounding the car and taking three men into custody.
At least one gun was believed recovered from the vehicle and one suspect, believed to be the driver, is being treated for injuries resulting from a Taser deployment after he reportedly fled the crash site on foot.
Two of the three men believed responsible for the robbery, pushed their way into the business at 425 Moraga Road, displayed a gun and possibly a knife and pushed an employee into an office after robbing him of his cell phone and other items.
The thieves ran to a waiting getaway car and fled into Lafayette, where the car was acquired by patrolling Lafayette officers alerted to the theft and followed onto eastbound Highway 24 – where it quickly reached speeds of 110 mph+ with police units in pursuit.
The chase is believed to have ended when the Nissan’s driver lost control of the vehicle and crashed it on Hillcrest Avenue with tailing officers quickly taking up positions around the wreckage and chasing the driver when he fled on foot.
Police are searching the car for evidence and the unnamed Arco employee is being examined for any injuries suffered during the assault.
We’ll have more on this story as additional details come to light.
You’ve been writing about these jokers intentionally lately haven’t you?
We have been noting the antics of a similarly masked, armed trio – knowing these folks don’t always stay within their own postal codes. So far unknown, of course, as the hood is still warm on the getaway car if these are the same folks responsible for other nearby crimes.
Hope our guy wasn’t hurt
Paper plates, 100+ mph. No description of the perps?
Would video appease you? Coming up…
No, video would NOT appease any decent citizen of the area. Get the snot beaten out of your smug face and stare down the barrel of a semi-auto with enough firepower to turn your head into bite-sized nuggets and then try to be funny. It’s sanctimonious trash in the enabling media and leftist parties who encourage these scum.
Translation please…
There’s nothing funny about armed robbery. If you think armed robbery is funny, you’re a sad and lonely person.
What???
BT are you playing with a full deck? Why so hostile? And how is any of this caused by the “leftist parties”? Talk about misdirected right wing anger.
Was he driving his grandmother’s car?
Weirdly remote location to rob for an out of town crew. Any word on whether it was the employee or the store that was targetted? Armed robbery (with gun) for $100 in change in the till and all the cigarettes you can carry (did they even steal stuff from store?) doesn’t seem like a good target for a crime carrying a 10+ year prison sentence. Not saying that crooks are smart, but this seems odd.
We have some photos of some stuff found at the crash site which may have come from the store…
Chris – JD is going to continue to be JD. For those of us who don’t think this is funny, it does seem like an odd and remote place to rob – but we’re law abiding citizens. Criminals will rob anybody, anytime, anywhere – including their own mother. They don’t think about the consequences, or they don’t care. Or both. 10+ years is no big deal to those with street cred. Prison gives them a controlled environment where they don’t have to be responsible. A lot of criminals can’t make it on the outside, and they actually prefer prison.
“JD is going to continue to be JD…” Okay, we’ll go with that. But in what context? What does this mean?
Your humor. Which is probably a good thing right now. Hang in there JD…
Danielle: Perhaps wrongly, but I would feel better if this was some targeted street “beef” and not a random violent act. What kind of cell phone would an ARCO clerk have? Can’t have more street value than a carton of cigarettes (of which there were presumably dozens in the store). I’m still thinking this was not primarily motivated by theft, but by violence. But who knows? I’m obviously just speculating. In any case, I hope these guys all do some meaningful time.
Book em.
Thank you law enforcement
Any word on if these perps are linked to other crime in the area in recent weeks?
Nothing formal from the involved jurisdictions so far, Pat.
Lucky they didn’t kill anyone
Lock them up!!!!
You guys are so flipping fast…..
We try to be, Andrew… first and right is the name of our game!