|
Hispanic Jewelry
Store Robbers Caught Red-Handed
Recently, the Salt Lake City
Police Department has had a number of Hispanic businesses in our city
become targeted for robberies. One such robbery occurred around
lunchtime on March 25, 2008, at a business near 900 West 800
South.
The suspects entered the store and distracted the clerk by asking to
see some merchandise from behind the counter. As the clerk had her
back turned, the second suspect walked behind the counter and grabbed
the clerk.
He dragged the clerk into the bathroom of the store and tied her hands
and feet with rope. The suspects then helped themselves to jewelry
from the store, and then fled.
An alert citizen observed the suspects at a gas station on I-80
between Tooele and Wendover. The citizen saw the suspects throw a
jewelry box into the dumpster at the gas station, and decided to alert
the Tooele County Sheriff’s Department as to the suspicious
circumstances they saw.
The Tooele County Sheriff’s Department notified both the Utah
Highway Patrol as well as the Salt Lake City Police Department.
A UHP trooper saw the suspect’s vehicle and stopped them along the
freeway.
Robbery detectives from Salt Lake City traveled to the area of the
stop. They were able to identify jewelry inside the suspect’s
vehicle that is believed to have been stolen that afternoon from the
jewelry store.
31-year-old Juan M. Perez and 34-year-old Andreas Penaloza
were arrested and booked into the Salt Lake County Jail on robbery
charges.
|
