3 Suspects Arrested in ‘Hobby’ Thefts

A man who allegedly told his victims he was robbing them as a hobby was arrested Friday in Laguna Niguel along with two suspected accomplices after what investigators believe may have been their fifth holdup, a sheriff’s spokesman said.

Zedrick Turnbough, 20, of Laguna Niguel; Tommie Dobson, 19, and Kito Johnson, 18, both of Santa Ana, were booked into Orange County Jail on suspicion of robbery after their arrest late Friday.

They were apprehended as they left a Wherehouse Video Store, which was under surveillance, in the 27000 block of La Paz Road, Lt. Hector Rivera said.

According to Rivera, one of the men donned a ski mask, then entered the store brandishing a gun and barking commands as the accomplices conducted “other duties.”

The armed man herded people into another part of the store and “told the victims that this was his hobby,” Rivera said.

Undercover sheriff’s deputies had staked out the store and others in the area in response to a rash of video store robberies. Investigators said they suspect the team of robbing four other South County stores.