Robbery Suspect Shoots Partner During Botched Heist

Alleged criminal shoots friend in foot, literally -- and self in foot, metaphorically.

A pair of Santa Cruz-area men are in custody on suspicion of committing a home invasion robbery after one suspect shot the other in the foot, according to reports.

The Santa Cruz Sentinel reports 24-year old Erick Vlach was seeking treatment at an area hospital when sheriff's deputies asked him how he came to take a bullet in the foot. He told deputies that an unknown assailant did the deed — before he changed his story to pin his friend, Jeremy Spencer, 19, as the shooter.

Cops told the newspaper that "when they don't have their story straight, they make something up on the spot" that is "not very hard for us to unravel."

They were tied to a robbery that happened Friday in the area — at the same time Vlach told deputies he'd been shot.

The pair were booked on numerous felonies into Santa Cruz County Jail.

Two other men were booked for possession of stolen property for being at the same house where some of the "cash, marijuana, and electronics" stolen was found, the newspaper reported.

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