A 26-year-old man was behind bars Monday on suspicion of robbing four stores in a little more than an hour in Santa Ana and Costa Mesa, taking lottery tickets only, police said.
Raffik Silva Zafret of Santa Ana was arrested Saturday night in the 3900 block of South Bristol Street, according to Santa Ana police Cpl. Anthony Bertagna. He said an officer who saw a photo of the suspect vehicle used in the Costa Mesa heist pulled over a similar-looking vehicle as it cruised the neighborhood where the rash of robberies occurred Thursday night.
The first of the robberies occurred about 8 that evening, with another one at 8:45 p.m., a third one at 9 p.m. in Costa Mesa, and the last one at 9:15 p.m. in Santa Ana, Bertagna said.
At one of the stores that was robbed, the suspect demanded “Scratchers” despite a clerk doing a cash count nearby, he said.
“It’s kind of dumb because (the tickets) are numbered” and easily tracked, Bertagna said.
In each heist, the bandit “flash(ed) a whole bunch of money like he was going to pay for the California Scratchers in each location,” the corporal said. But as he was about to complete the transaction, he pulled out a gun and took the tickets without paying, Bertagna said.