PASADENA >> Police arrested two teenage would-be robbery after they tried to steal cough syrup from two Pasadena pharmacies on Wednesday, but were foiled when the employees they tried to rob could no understand the slang they used, officials said.
The suspects, a 15-year-old boy and a 14-year-old boy, both from Altadena, were arrested as they tried to flee the scene of the failed robberies on a Pasadena Transit bus, Pasadena police Lt. John Luna said.
Police first received a report about 11:34 a.m. that a teen had just tried, but failed, to commit a knifepoint robbery at a pharmacy in the 900 block of East Green Street , the lieutenant said.
The older boy entered the store, brandished a knife and demanded “the lean,” Luna said.
The teen was apparently demanding codeine-based cough syrup, but using a slang term the employee did not understand.
“When the employee did not understand what he was asking for, he left the store, slashing a paper sign as he left,” Luna said. The 14-year-old boy waited outside the store during the attempted robbery.
The young would-be robber and his accomplice then went across the street and tried the same thing at another pharmacy, police said.
The older boy brandished a knife as he again demanded, “the lean,” and advanced on employees, Luna said. An employee told the knife-wielding youngster that he did not understand what he was asking for, but to take whatever he wanted. Both teens fled from the store empty-handed.
A witness told arriving officers that the boys had gotten on a Pasadena Transit bus, Luna said. Police soon stopped the bus and arrested the two boys without a struggle. The knife believed to have been used in the crime was recovered.