Two people were arrested Tuesday on suspicion of carjacking a man in El Cajon, then robbing three 7-Eleven stores at gunpoint and leading National City police on a chase that ended in a crash.
El Cajon police received a report that a man had been carjacked around midnight, then contacted other agencies to watch out for a silver Toyota Corolla driven by a woman, Fox5 reported.
The first robbery was reported around 1:05 a.m. at the 7-Eleven near the intersection of San Carlos Drive and Bisby Lake Avenue, San Diego Police Officer John Buttle said.
A man walked in armed with a handgun while the clerk had his head down preparing the register for the day, Buttle said. The armed man told the clerk to give him money, then when the clerk opened the cash register the thief reached over the counter and took the cash himself, the officer said.
The thief ran out of the store, got into a vehicle and fled in an unknown direction with an undisclosed amount of cash.
The duo then made their way to a 7-Eleven near the intersection of Worthington Street and Paradise Valley Road in the La Presa area of Spring Valley around 1:35 a.m., San Diego County Sheriff’s Lt. Steve Bodine said. The man went inside the store and waited for all of the customers to leave, then he pulled out a handgun and robbed the clerk at gunpoint before fleeing in a vehicle, described only as a gray sedan, Bodine said.
The pair later robbed a third store on North Euclid Avenue in National City, where the clerk alerted police, 10News reported.
A National City police officer spotted the stolen vehicle in a parking lot adjacent to the 7-Eleven and chased the car until it crashed into a residential fence, Fox5 reported.
The female driver stayed in the car, but a male passenger ran away before officers caught up to him and both were taken into custody, Fox5 reported.
The ages and names of the suspected thieves have not been released.
Updated at 10:20 a.m. Jan. 7, 2020
— City News Service
