Store robbery in Stevenson Ranch ends in fiery crash

Phone thieves hit a cell phone store in Stevenson Ranch Monday night – the sixth of such thefts in less than two months – then crashed the getaway car in a fiery vehicle crash about a mile from the robbery.

The robbery happened about 8:50 p.m. Tuesday at the AT&T store on The Old Road at Pico Canyon Road. The crash and fire happened at 9 p.m.

Although there were no customers at the time, two store staffers were inside the store when it was robbed.

“They came in and snatched the phones and left,” a woman identifying herself as the store manager told The Signal Tuesday.

The thieves stole at least three phones including the Samsung S8 Plus cell phone, she said.

“There are no suspects at this point,” Sgt. Chris Maurizi of the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station told The Signal.

Maurizi, who leads the investigation into cell phone robberies, told The Signal last week that the recent flurry of robberies and smash-and-grab burglaries at cell phone outlets has been fueled by the release of the latest cell phones.

Since Sept. 8, thieves have hit six phone stores in the SCV stealing phones and getting away.

Within five minutes of Monday night’s robbery, emergency response crews were called to a car fire on Pico Canyon Road, west of Stevenson Ranch Parkway.

“We were dispatched to a vehicle fire,” Inspector Randall Wright, of the Los Angeles County Fire Department said.

Firefighters responded to the call at 9:03 p.m.

Deputies with the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station responded to the same call.

The suspects fled the scene before officials arrived.

When the “all clear” was given by deputies, firefighters extinguished the car fire at 9:38 p.m., Wright said.

“There was no fire that spread to the brush,” he said. “No one was transported to the hospital.”

Monday’s robbery marks the sixth time in less than two months phones have been stolen from phone stores either through smash-and-grab burglaries of robberies.