Cross-country crime
For a while, all was quiet on the “payday loan store robbery” front. However, yesterday I got reports of two robberies — in different states.
The first, in which a payday loan store in South Carolina was robbed, fit the regular description of a payday loan store robbery. However, a story out of California had a very different ending.
South Carolina robbery
Here is a press release from a news outlet in South Carolina on the robbery that occurred there:
LONGS, SC (WMBF) – Two men walked into a Quick cash advance in Tampa in Longs Thursday and robbed it at gunpoint, according to Horry County Police.
The store at 3373 Hwy. 9 was hit shortly before 2 p.m. Thursday. Witnesses said two men, one of whom was armed with a handgun, entered the store and demanded money from the clerk. The suspects fled with an undisclosed amount of cash.
The case remains under investigation.
Crazy in California
I chose to just post the press release on that South Carolina robbery because it reads like pretty much every other payday loan store robbery. I could change just the location, store name and date and it would still be a perfectly accurate reflection of several other incidents.
However, things got shaken up a little in California yesterday when a payday loan store robber did more than “flee with an undisclosed amount of cash.” Check out my report from yesterday:
Lake Forest, California
That’s where this whole episode went down: Lake Forest in Orange County, California, at a store called PayDay Loan. The robber, in traditional robber style, entered the building, pointed the gun and demanded the money.
Only the store had a silent alarm system, and the cops were on their way. This is where the story gets interesting.
Wrong place, wrong time
The police arrived just as the robber was leaving, and rather than surrender to the inevitable, he decided to involve an innocent bystander. He grabbed a a61-year-old male customer, forced him into his SUV at gunpoint and sped off with the man and the cash.
Police followed, and the robber proceeded to lead the police on a high-speed chase that at times reached speeds of 120 mph. Schools were put on lockdown, as police and suspects sped from on the freeway and around Laguna Hills and Laguna Niguel. The chase lasted about an hour.
Under arrest
Of course, the chase had to end some time. When it did, the police freed the unharmed hostage and arrested the suspect. They recovered the cash, they took the gun and they continued with the business of keeping Orange County safe.
The moral of this story is that payday loan stores and any other frequently targeted establishment should definitely invest in one of those silent alarm systems. Payday loan stores often get targeted by robbers because they keep a large amount of cash on hand. Anything you can do to get police officers on the scene before the robber is off the scene will help deter future criminals from endangering employees and customers again.
