Police still searching for ‘Soda Jerk Bandit’

Deepa Bharath

COSTA MESA -- Police have stepped up their search for the so-called

Soda Jerk Bandit after he struck again Monday night at a mom-and-pop

liquor store in the city, authorities said Tuesday.

The heist at Hilgrens Liquor Store on East 17th Street is the bandit’s

13th in a series of armed robberies throughout the county that started

Aug. 5, said Lt. John FitzPatrick of the Costa Mesa Police Department.

The robber, wielding a blue steel semiautomatic handgun, approached

the cash register at about 8:45 p.m. Monday. However, the suspect was

able to escape with only a soda, a bottle of water and a newspaper

because the terrified clerk ran out of the store, police said. No shots

were fired and no one was injured.

FitzPatrick said a full-time detective has now been assigned to the

case. He said police are also warning local liquor and convenience stores

by distributing fliers. The police department is also issuing copies of

surveillance videotapes of the bandit for television broadcast.

Police believe the same man has robbed several stores -- three in

Costa Mesa, three in Huntington Beach, two in Mission Viejo, two in

Tustin and one each in Newport Beach, Fountain Valley and Lake Forest.

The robber is described as a white man, between the ages of 25 and 27,

about 6 feet tall and weighing approximately 170 pounds, with brown hair,

a mustache and goatee. He was seen wearing sunglasses, a black Nike

baseball cap, a red T-shirt and blue shorts.

Police said the robber typically enters a store, picks up a bag of

chips and a bottle of Dr. Pepper, and takes the items to the cash

register. When the clerk rings up the sale, the bandit demands money

after pulling out a pistol from a black, laptop computer-type bag he

carries.

Police said the suspect has been seen escaping in different cars, all

usually without a license plate. The bandit usually hits stores between 1

and 9:30 p.m.

The biggest challenge for detectives is to “identify the bandit,” said

Costa Mesa Police Det. Bob Fate.

He said the robber operates very quickly.

“He waits till the store is empty,” he said. “After he approaches the

clerk, it’s just a matter of 30 seconds to a minute.”

Fate said no persons have been injured in any of the robberies.

“We want to catch him before he does hurt somebody,” he said.

Anybody with information on the case is asked to call Fate at (714)

754-5340, or Huntington Beach Police Det. Mike Nakama at (714) 536-5692.