Cypress / Westminster : VCRs Popular Items on Thieves’ Shopping Lists

Videocassette recorders, which are popular with Christmas shoppers, have also attracted the interest of thieves. Seven video players were stolen Sunday in two apparently unrelated thefts from Radio Shack stores in Cypress and Westminster, authorities said Monday.

In Cypress, police said two men smashed a pickup truck into a Radio Shack display window Sunday night and stole four videocassette recorders valued at $3,000.

The men apparently backed their dark-colored pickup into the store’s front display window, located in the 5000 block of Lincoln Avenue, at 11:30 p.m., Cypress Police Lt. John Schadfer said.

A witness, whose name was not released, told police that the two men grabbed four VCRs from the store shelves and drove off. Police have not released any descriptions.

At another Radio Shack store in Westminster, a well-dressed man stole three VCRs, valued at $1,300, simply by carrying them out of the store Sunday afternoon without attracting the attention of store employees, Westminster Police Detective Linda Stewart said Monday.

Police said that store employees were busy handling a holiday crowd at the store on Brookhurst Street when the man, dressed in a white shirt, gray slacks and tie, carried away the machines about 4 p.m.