Christian Book Store Among Stores Robbed In Shopping Center

Some East Side business owners are checking their locks twice these days.

In the past week alone, there’s been two burglaries and a robbery at the Vista Estrella Two” strip mall on George Dieter, with one of the robberies occurring at a Christian book store.

Sales are no longer the only concern of business owners in the shopping center.

“My employees are scared,” said Albert Maldonado, owner of the Cricket store in the shopping center.

Last week, someone broke a window at his store, ran in and stole some cell phones.

“We don’t know if someone’s walking in, looks a little suspicious, so you can’t work comfortably,” he said.

The day before, the Ace Cash Express next door was robbed by 31-year-old Jorge Rios Deliria when he held up a customer and then turned a weapon on the clerk, according to El Paso Police.

Police said the two crimes are part of a trend. Officers at Pebble Hills Regional Command have responded to 122 robberies this year, up from 108 in 2009.

Another robbery at the shopping center took place at the Holy Spirit Christian Book Store which doubles as a pay station for utility bills.

The store owners think the robber – seen in surveillance video – was a previous customer.

“… it looked like he knew what he was doing,” the store owner told ABC-7.

The man went straight to a back room where the daily deposit was being handled.

“I sympathize for somebody who has to do that, only God knows the reason he needed that money,” the Christian book store owner said.

Maldonado was more frustrated than understanding.

“There’s nothing that has been done so far.”

Police explained the businesses broken into had some security measures in place but not everything. The Cricket store didn’t have an up to date security alarm permit, according to police.

“We won’t be dispatched, we wont be aware to respond because we did not get the call,” El Paso Police Lt. Humberto Talamantes said.

The permit costs about $40 a year and are supposed to minimize the number of officers responding to false alarms.

Police have not said if the crimes appear to be linked, but they did say they’re working some leads.