Don’t Shoot Your Partner

Armed robbery really isn’t all that tough. There are a few rules, like don’t shoot your partner in crime and make sure your getaway car will whisk you from the scene without mechanical troubles.

In case your car breaks down, and your partner does shoot you, then the corollary to bear in mind is: don’t call the cops to report you’ve been shot.

But if you do, don’t be stuffing your pistol and the loot into a bush when the gendarmes arrive.

Good rules, we think, but apparently, Guillermo Garaicoa and his partner Carlos Rodriguez never heard of ’em. Now, deputies in the San Diego County jail call them “Dumb and Dumber.”

Guillermo and Carlos were apparently successfully employed in the field of armed robberies of purse-bearing women until a local lady, the third in a series of victims one evening, decided to fight back outside a Rancho San Diego supermarket.

Carlos unlimbered his roscoe, took careful aim, and shot Guillermo in the leg. Maybe he thought it would scare the lady into giving up her purse. Anyway, Guillermo thought it was a pretty bad idea. He limped over to their getaway sled and announced he was through with crime for the night.

Their sleek black Pontiac TransAm might have looked like the ideal crook’s ride, but it gave up the ghost and rolled to a stop a short time later. Dumb and Dumber then called 911 to report that Guillermo had been shot.

Since the Sheriff’s Office had already broadcast their descriptions, San Diego Police were prepared to shackle some wrist bones when they swarmed on the scene but weren’t quite prepared for what they saw.

Apparently, figuring their “somebody shot at us” story would go over a lot better if they weren’t standing there flat-footed, clutching a gun and robber loot. Carlos and Guillermo were sheepishly stuffing their pistol and a purse collection into the pucker brush when the first nine cops arrived.