(May 12, 2006) -- LBReport.com has learned additional details of a terrifying crime committed over a period spanning roughly two hours in broad daylight...involving fashionable parts of downtown LB and Bluff Park areas and perhaps beyond.
LBReport.com got a strange reaction to our original May 9 story: some readers didn't believe it.
Well, we confirmed our information from LBPD before we published it...and we have some additional factoids now via LBPD.
Some readers wondered why this story wasn't reported in the Press-Telegram. We dunno (respectfully followed by we don't care).
To the best of our knowledge, it really happened...and remains an Alfred Hitchcock type scenario in which a LB resident faced a terrifying situation while unsuspecting people all around him went about their daily routines.
Here's the story, first reported by LBReport.com on May 9...with additional information provided to us in the late afternoon May 12 by LBPD Public Information Officer Nancy Pratt. Yes, the crime remains under investigation...but what we cite below is what LBPD tells us now.
Sometime at roughly 3:30 p.m. on May 8, a man in his 70s had [some new factoids follow] just parked his car in a parking lot in the area of Cherry and Broadway (near Bixby Park).
An armed gunman forced himself into the elderly victim's vehicle, robbed him of personal possessions and forced him to drive to several ATMs [where money was withdrawn].
The suspect then forced the victim to drive to his residence [700 block East Ocean Blvd., LBPD previously told us] where the suspect took additional items from the victim.
They then got back in the car, drove several blocks...and the suspect got out of the car in the downtown area and fled. By then, it was roughly 5:30 p.m. [according to LBPD's May 9 account to us.]
The suspect is described as a white male in his late 20s. And yes, this suspect is at large [for now].
Did you see anything related to these events on May 8? Some of what happened occurred in broad daylight in downtown LB and adjacent Bluff Park areas (and perhaps beyond). If you witnessed any of this, or have any other useful information, contact LBPD Detective John Mercado in LBPD's Robbery Detail at (562) 570-7464.
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