A robber who pointed a blow torch at a deli employee before taking cash from the store's register was arrested after police learned he was already in jail in connection with an unrelated crime, according to the Glendale Police Department.
Security camera video from the heist Saturday at Gardenia Market in La Crescenta showed the cashier jump onto the counter after the man approached him with the blow torch.
The employee, who was not injured, told investigators the man appeared to wait at the back of the store for customers to leave. Once they did, the man walked behind the counter with a lighter and blow torch. The attacker lit the blow torch and pointed it at the employee before grabbing cash from the register, a bottle of liquor from a shelf and leaving.
On Thursday, Glendale police were informed by Long Beach police of a similar crime Jan. 18 in that community, about 30 miles south of La Crescenta. Witnesses provided a partial license plate number in the Long Beach case, which led investigators to the suspect who was already in custody on unrelated charges at Los Angeles County Jail.
