Alleged Thieves Faked A Heart Attack, Then Tried To Escape In A Rideshare After Robbery

Mass robberies, or “flash mob” robberies have been a media phenomenon in Southern California. While many of these alleged thieves get away, many of them don’t seem to be the smartest of criminals. Take a recent theft attempt by a group of thieves trying to get away in a rideshare vehicle as KTLA reports.

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On September 5th, a group of four suspects — Louie Velasco, Jocelyn Mendoza, Sherry Rogers, and Marlon Deleon — were allegedly seen ransacking a Macy’s department store in Brea Mall around noon. The thieves weren’t aware that the cops had already seen one of the robbers acting suspiciously and were waiting for them outside of the mall. They encountered the cops as they ran outside to their getaway car. They managed to speed off, leading police on a high speed chase. Then things get…wild. They dusted the cops and managed to hide in the most random of places.

Police said they drove through the streets recklessly and “our officers were not able to keep up.”

They eventually stopped near Laurel Elementary School which prompted a lockdown. Thinking they had lost the police, the suspects ditched their vehicle before running into a dentist’s office across the street to hide.

While inside the office, one of the suspects faked having a heart attack. This prompted the dentist, Dr. Brooks Larson, to try and help her. “We were having lunch and they came in the front door and this woman acted like she was having a heart attack. I responded, going through my emergency protocols. We thought we were treating a heart attack victim but eventually she started feeling better and said, ‘Oh, I feel much better,’ and jumped out and ran out the front door,” Larson told KTLA. The fake heart attack was just a ploy to buy them time: the whole time they had requested and were waiting for a rideshare to pick them up.

When the rideshare arrived, the thieves got in and tried to get away. It didn’t work of course as the cops quickly surrounded the car and took them into custody. Apparently, rideshare drivers unknowingly getting pulled into crime a lot as one Brea police officer explained. “It’s not an uncommon thing for us to have that and for rideshare drivers to go through that.”

As for the thieves, they now face multiple charges, including filing a false emergency report that’s the cherry on top of this whole scheme: police say one of them attempted to lure police away from the mall by calling 911 and claiming a robbery was in process at a local Wells Fargo bank.