Couple honored for helping end robbery ring
By Kyle Jorrey kjorrey@theacorn.com

Nearly every weekday morning, Rudy Mazzella makes a pit stop at the 7-Eleven by his house to pick up a cup of coffee before embarking on the daunting 75mile trip to his job in the Inland Empire.

Recently, he'd been greeted each daybreak by the same smiling clerk. Over time, as is natural, the two grew a friendly bond marked by their daily exchanges.

But on the night of June 8, as Mazzella and his wife, Tammy, were pulling up to the store to get a few groceries, the clerk's familiar face wore a very different expression- one that told the couple that something was very wrong.

"When I saw his face it was like he had just seen a ghost, he looked very scared. I said, 'This place is being robbed.' And something just came over me; you know . . . someone is robbing a part of my neighborhood. I grew up in this area. I used to go that store as a kid. . . . It's my territory and I wanted to protect my area," Mazzella said.

Just moments earlier, his wife had noticed a man enter the store wearing a hooded sweatshirt and a bandana over his face. A minute later, as the longtime Simi residents sat stunned in their vehicle, the man exited the store and escaped into the night.

Little did the crook know that his brief encounter with the Mazzellas would shortly lead to his capture.

At Monday's City Council meeting, the Mazzellas were presented a certificate of appreciation for their assistance to the Simi Valley Police Department with the apprehension of an armed robbery suspect and his two accomplices.

"It's when citizens get involved in their community that it helps us all stay safe," said Mayor Paul Miller.

Police Chief Michael Lewis, who presented the commendation to the Mazzellas along with Miller, described the events of June 8- and how the brave Simi couple unknowingly broke up an armed robbery ring that police said was responsible for four Simi Valley convenience store robberies in less than two weeks.

The police chief detailed how Rudy and Tammy followed the suspect from the 7-Eleven on east Cochran Street, down a dark side street to a waiting getaway vehicle; they continued to follow him, relaying every possible detail to a police dispatcher on the other end of Rudy's cellphone, including the vehicle's license plate number.

"For six to eight minutes he stayed on the line with our 911 dispatcher and provided very valuable information. "He stayed at a safe distance on the vehicle's tail- with Tammy- probably held hostage," Lewis joked.

Using Rudy's directions, police were able to locate the Lincoln and arrest the two suspects inside, the getaway driver and the spotter, Lewis said.

Further investigation eventually led to the arrest of the primary suspect, who fled the vehicle after noticing the Mazzellas on his tail.

Lewis said that without the Mazzellas' help, there's little doubt that the robbers would have struck again.

"Without their assistance, without them phoning in the information to our officers, other citizens and other businesses would have still been at risk. But low and behold, both of these guys are now in jail and facing a good amount of jail time," said Lewis, who noted that two of three suspects arrested were on probation at the time of their arrest.

Rudy, 40, a Simi Valley resident of 35 years and a father of a 13yearold daughter, said he considered a career in law enforcement until a severe motorcycle accident left him physically unable to perform the job. He had even gone on a couple of ride-alongs with Simi police when he was in high school.

Rudy, who didn't find out the suspect was actually armed until the following week, said he would do it again if given the chance.

"When I saw that clerk's face it just triggered something inside me, something that said 'I'm not going to let this guy away with this,'" he said. "I just felt bad for the guy. I knew he was scared for his life. And this was my neighborhood."