Fake Money Trips Suspect in Robbery

The robbers who hit a toy store Monday weren’t just playing around, but some of their loot had limited value: They took toy money.

The two robbers burst into a Toys R Us store near the intersection of Erwin Street and Topanga Canyon Boulevard on Tuesday night, brandished pistols and forced a store manager to open a safe, escaping with at least $7,000 in cash, plus more than $7,000 in “Geoffrey dollars.”

“Geoffrey dollars,” which bear the portrait of the store’s mascot giraffe, are spendable only at the chain’s toy stores.

Seven hours later, a van passed a CHP officer on the San Diego Freeway in Sepulveda Pass “at a high rate of speed,” said West Valley Detective Robert Johansen.

“That’s not too smart,” he noted.

The CHP officers who pulled over the van to cite the driver for speeding smelled alcohol and arrested Howard Simmons on suspicion of drunk driving, Johansen said.

And then they found about $2,000 in the van--plus about $1,500 in “Geoffrey dollars,” he said.

The 28-year-old Simmons, of Los Angeles, was arrested on suspicion of armed robbery and is being investigated in connection with a string of robberies at Toys R Us stores, including outlets in Lancaster and Van Nuys.

Police are still looking for another suspect.