Video shows suspect robbing same Costa Mesa 7-Eleven twice within two hours

COSTA MESA, Calif. (KABC) -- Costa Mesa police are looking for a suspect who tried to rob a store not once but twice just hours apart.

Surveillance video from a 7-Eleven in the area shows the first incident Sunday. Around 7 p.m., a man went in to buy a few packs of cigarettes. After looking around, he tried to grab them away from the clerk.

The man threatened the clerk, then walked around toward him. The suspect swung at the clerk before finally walking out of the store with the cigarettes.

"He just looked like he's paying. But he was looking around somewhere...and then he just starts his work," owner Navroot Singh said.

The store is near Adams Avenue and Harbor Boulevard. Singh said the clerk was OK but that another robbery happened before the end of his shift.

"It's so crazy, like, totally unbelievable. I didn't expect the same guy came here twice," he said.

Police said that same suspect showed up again two hours later. This time, he hid his face and went straight for the clerk, demanding cash in the registers.

The suspect then went back around with a basket and took what he wanted.

Singh said this isn't the first time his store has been robbed, but it's certainly the first time done by the same robber in two hours. He wants the suspect caught.

"My employee was crying when I came here and the cops were here and they were helping my employee," Singh said.

Anyone with more information is urged to call the Costa Mesa Police Department.