Suspect in String of Video Store Robberies Is Arrested at Border

The hunt for an armed robber preying for months on local video stores came to an apparent end early Friday morning with the capture of a 31-year-old man as he attempted to enter San Diego from Tijuana, police said.

Robert Cruz Loza, who earlier this year had been freed on parole on a prior robbery conviction, was arrested about 3 a.m. by U.S. Customs Service officials at the San Ysidro border crossing, authorities said.

An image of Loza’s face had been recorded by a hidden camera at a video store and was televised this week on both sides of the border.

Loza, described as having several addresses in San Diego County and Tijuana, was being held on suspicion of violating his parole. He has not been formally charged in the robberies of 16 video stores and one shoe store, but San Diego police spokesman Dave Cohen said armed-robbery charges could be filed by the middle of next week.

“Some property and some evidence linking him to the series, we believe, was recovered from a residence in Clairemont,” Cohen said, declining to elaborate.

Police plan to ask video store employees to view lineups in an attempt to determine whether they recognize Loza as a suspect in the robberies, which began in September and netted more than $28,000.

Cohen said police in National City, the site of one of the robberies, developed information about the suspect’s vehicle that eventually was passed on to various law enforcement agencies, including the Customs Service.

When Loza drove up in a dark blue, two-door Dodge, Customs officials recognized the vehicle and detained Loza until he was turned over to local authorities.

“Information had been relayed to the border people, and they were able to track the vehicle and saw it coming across,” Cohen said, adding that Loza had been paroled in April from the Los Angeles area after serving time for robbery.

The arrest Friday follows a number of television broadcasts this week of hidden-camera footage taken during a robbery of a Blockbuster Video store in San Diego. The broadcast, aired on San Diego and Tijuana television, was part of a Crime Stoppers campaign.

Crime Stoppers had posted a $1,000 reward in the case, while Blockbuster Video, the scene of 10 of the robberies, offered $5,000.

Robert Stowers, regional manager of the Blockbuster chain, said the arrest will help ease tensions among many some video store employees who were concerned about when the thief would be caught.

“He is only a suspect and hasn’t been charged at this point,” Stowers said of Loza. “But to the extent that he may be the one in the stores, of course we’re relieved. Any time someone keeps coming in your store and displaying a gun, you’re glad there finally is an end to it.”

Bill Robinson, a San Diego police spokesman, said the crime spree began Sept. 26, that most of the robberies occurred in the morning and that, although the thief displayed a handgun, no shots were fired.

After taking money from the cash register, Robinson said, the thief would order the video shop employee to the back of the store, where he would make the clerk count to 300 while the bandit fled.

Robinson said the robber never wore a mask and was often well groomed and neatly dressed.

Stowers, the Blockbuster regional manager, said the hidden-camera footage showed that the suspect “comes in with sunglasses and oftentimes wearing a hat. He walks behind the counter and brandishes a weapon and asks for all the money.”

In a twist to the case, officials said the car Loza was driving reportedly is registered to an acquaintance of Loza’s who works for the Customs Service. However, police said they do not suspect the employee of any criminal involvement in the string of robberies.