Robbery Crew Hitting Watsonville Businesses

A robbery crew that has hit four businesses in three weeks is getting more brazen, police said Thursday.

The robbers—usually a duo, once a group of four or five—held up a cell phone store Wednesday evening and, for the first time, robbed customers as well as the business.

“Are they becoming more embolden?” Watsonville Police Lt. David McCartney said. “It appears to be.”

McCartney was hesitant to say the robberies were all done by the same crew, but pointed out that all of the heists involve robbers armed with handguns who hit open businesses and that three of the four hold-ups have been done by a pair or robbers.

“It’s definitely a possibility we’re looking at young males and they’re utilizing approximately the same time of M.O,” McCartney said. “Of course we can’t say definatively that it’s the same people because they’ve been wearing masks.”

So far, no one has been seriously injured.

However, at Fidel’s Mexican Taqueria, a robber pistol-whipped a clerk, then fired off a shot into the ceiling of the business on May 7. Monday, when the robbers hit the Quik Stop on Freedom Boulevard, one hit the clerk in the face before fleeing.

Police have yet to determine the robbers’ motive or method to selecting their targets. The businesses hit have included a taqueria, a convenience, a chicken wing restaurant and a cell phone store. The times have ranged from evening to late night to morning.

A fifth recent gunpoint robbery is likely not the work of the robbery crew, police said. In that incident, a long robber armed with a shotgun held up a video store.

McCartney encouraged businesses owners and community members to be observant.

“The things that people should be doing, they should be doing this on an everyday basis: just be aware of their surroundings. … If anything does strike them as suspicions, call the police,” he said.

Patrol officers are visiting businesses in their beats to look at physical layouts and make suggestions. For example, video helps in these cases but police know businesses can’t always afford to the equipment.

Robbery witnesses have been cooperative, but detectives still have little to go on, McCartney said.

“We’re working on some information,” he said. “At this point I’m not going to talk specifically.

“They are a bold crew to be striking like they are and they’re more bold because they have to know the police is looking at businesses closely and so it doesn’t seem like they’re not necessarily caring about what actions we’re taking to apprehend them,” McCartney said.