Laguna Beach : A Toy Gun Figures in Robbery, Holdup Try

Police arrested a 33-year-old Laguna Beach transient Wednesday after a bank was robbed and a holdup was attempted at a jewelry store.

Police said that at 2 p.m., a man in blue pants and a gray sweat shirt entered the B. Hall Estate Jewelry Store in the 400 block of South Coast Highway and demanded money while threatening a salesman with a toy Uzi machine gun in a plastic bag.

Clifford Kaehler, 64, told police he believed that the suspect was drunk or under the influence of drugs and knocked the plastic bag away.

“He wanted all the money in my cash box. So I turned around and knocked the bag in the air. Then I gave him a push out the door,” Kaehler said.

The robber indicated that he was joking and fled, Detective Lance Ishmael said.

At 2:30 p.m., a bandit thought to be the same man entered Great American First Savings Bank in the 200 block of Ocean Avenue, police said. He gave the teller a note that read, “Give me all your money or die,” Lt. William Cavenaugh said. After showing the teller a toy gun in a plastic bag, the robber escaped with more than $2,500, including some marked bills, Ishmael said.

Two hours later, police arrested Michael Valent as he rode in a taxicab. Valent was “a well-known suspect to us,” Cavenaugh said.

Most of the money, including the marked bills, was recovered, but police did not find the toy gun, Cavenaugh added.