BUTTONWILLOW —An employee and a former employee are behind bars today, after staging a robbery of a southwest Kern County fast food restaurant last Thursday morning.
Christian Orozco, 30, and 31-year-old Ernesto Huerta were booked into the Kern County Jail’s Central Receiving Facility for conspiracy, burglary and grand theft.
According to the Kern County Sheriff’s Office, deputies responded to the report of a robbery at the Carl’s Jr. restaurant on Highway 46 in Buttonwillow on the morning of April 17.
Deputies said Huerta, the restaurant manager, said he was in the process of opening the business when he was confronted by a man wearing a ski mask, who held a knife to his throat, and ordered him to open the store’s safe.
Huerta said he complied, allowing the suspect to flee the scene with approximately $1,500 in cash.
After reviewing the restaurant’s security footage, detectives discovered that the suspect, later identified as Orozco, a former employee of the restaurant, entered the store through an unlocked door.
“A further investigation also led to information that indicated that Orozco had rented a room at a nearby motel, where he was dropped by Huerta,” said sheriff’s spokesperson Ray Pruitt. “And where he was later located and taken into custody.”
Deputies said they also located the ski mask worn in the robbery and recovered a portion of the money, as well as other evidence that implicated that Huerta and Orozco has been working together in planning and carrying out the robbery.
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KERO: Carl’s Jr. manager, former employee accused of staging robbery
