Police nab 3 toy gun robbers

James Meier

COSTA MESA -- Police arrested two men and a woman Tuesday on suspicion

of using a toy gun in a string of robberies that netted them $22 in cash,

a cellular phone, a jacket, a pack of cigarettes and a notebook planner.

The trio’s alleged crime spree came to an end early Tuesday when Costa

Mesa police tracked down their car near Del Mar Avenue and Newport

Boulevard. The last victims, a man and woman who were robbed of $20,

described the vehicle, said Costa Mesa Police Lt. Dale Birney.

The suspects -- Chelsea Gardner, 20, of Costa Mesa; Christopher Giles,

21, of Santa Ana; and Darryn Murray, 21, of Joshua Tree -- were each

charged with three counts of robbery using replica guns. Such offenses

can carry prison terms of up to nine years for each of count because

“force and fear is still used” with fake guns, Birney said. All were

scheduled for arraignment today. Gardner is being held at Orange County

Jail, and Giles and Murray are being held at Costa Mesa Jail, Birney

said.

“They were pretty active for about 12 hours of the day,” Birney said.

“It was nice to get them off the streets, that’s for sure.”

The first robbery occurred at about 2 p.m. Monday, when one of the men

held up two men sitting in a vehicle at TeWinkle Park and made off with a

$10 notebook planner, police said. One of the victims noticed the gun was

a fake and chased one of the men with a large hunting knife, Birney said.

The suspect was hopped into a vehicle with the two other suspects and

fled the scene.

The suspects “either tried to scratch off the orange [on the tip of

the gun], or they used a black marker to color it,” Birney said.

Later Monday, the trio reportedly stole $2 from a bicyclist, a pack of

cigarettes and a lighter from a man checking his mailbox at an apartment

complex near 19th Street and Park Drive, and then a cellular phone and

jacket from a man walking near 17th Street and Harbor Boulevard. The

stolen items were worth more than $250, police said.

Driving a car at about 12:20 a.m. Tuesday near Newport and Bay Street,

the trio picked up the man and woman who described the car.

“It didn’t seem to be very well-planned,” Birney said. “It seemed to

be a spur of the moment thing.”