| For Immediate Release Case # 09SF0637
April 14, 2010 |
Susan Kang Schroeder Chief of Staff Office: 714-347-8408 Cell: 714-292-2718 Farrah Emami |
FLOOR SUPERVISOR SENTENCED TO TWO YEARS AND EIGHT MONTHS IN PRISON FOR SETTING UP TWO RITE AID ARMED ROBBERIES WHILE
CLAIMING TO BE VICTIM
NEWPORT BEACH – A Rite Aid floor supervisor was sentenced today to two years and eight months in state prison for setting up two armed robberies and falsely claiming to be the victim. Cynthia Ongamsing-Jenkins, 43, Tustin, pleaded guilty Feb. 24, 2010, to two felony counts of grand theft.
On the night of Nov. 11, 2007, while working as a supervisor at a Rite Aid located at 2300 Harbor Boulevard in Costa Mesa, Ongamsing-Jenkins reported to the Costa Mesa Police Department (CMPD) that she and another employee had been robbed. She told the police that two men had walked into the store armed with a handgun and ordered her and the other employee to give them the cash from the register and store safe. The other employee was taken at gunpoint and forced into the store cooler. The two men stole approximately $5,500. Even though the robbery was captured on surveillance video, the two suspects could not be identified and no arrests were made at that time.
On June 20, 2009, while working as a floor supervisor at the Rite Aid located at 24829 Del Prado in Dana Point, Ongamsing-Jenkins told the Orange County Sheriff’s Department (OCSD) that she was approached by a man as she was walking through the parking lot of a Bank of America in Dana Point with a deposit bag from Rite Aid. She claimed that the man pushed her to the ground and stole the deposit bag containing approximately $20,000 for that week’s deposits. A civilian called 9-1-1 after hearing Ongamsing-Jenkins yell that she had been robbed. The robbery was captured by a security camera overlooking the bank parking lot.
Upon further investigation, OCSD discovered two suspicious text messages on Ongamsing-Jenkins cell phone indicating that she had been involved in planning the staged robbery in Dana Point. During a subsequent interview of the defendant where she was confronted about the text messages, Ongamsing-Jenkins confessed to the officers that she had set up both the 2007 and 2009 robberies.
The men in the surveillance videos have not been identified.
Deputy District Attorney Craig Cazares prosecuted this case.
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