From Bill Lindelof:
In less than a week, workers at recycling centers at opposite ends of the county were shot in armed robberies - but Fred Ehly, who operates a redemption center off Marysville Boulevard, said he's not too scared.
"We are a target," Ehly said. "But I'm not worried. I've got this."
With that, he picked up a bullhorn and siren attachment he keeps on his desk. As the siren howled, he shouted: "Get down on the ground, now!"
Ehly is the longtime proprietor of Fred's California Recycling Center. He said he's broken up many fights at his place with his trusty Mega-mite bullhorn.
"They think it is the cops," he said. "They take off running."
Short of scaring robbers with a bullhorn, Sacramento Police Department spokesman Sgt. Norm Leong said there are several measures that recycling center workers can take for their protection.
Leong said recyclers should keep very little money on hand, shouldn't open a cash register in view of the public, and should not give customers their redemption money in a spot visible to street traffic.
The latest attack occurred at 9 a.m. Wednesday at a recycling center in south Sacramento in the 7600 block of Stockton Boulevard.
The Sheriff's Department said a worker in his early 20s was shot in the arm but his injury was not life-threatening.
Deputies said they could only provide a vague description of the suspect: an African American male in his 20s, 5-foot-9, wearing a black puffy coat.
Last Thursday, a female employee at a recycling center near a Citrus Heights bowling alley was shot four times in the arms and leg by a robber, Citrus Heights police said.
In that case, however, police arrested a man and his girlfriend as suspects in the shooting. They were described as being homeless.
Ehly said some recycling centers pay in cash, while others reimburse customers with a paper receipt that can be redeemed at a grocery store.
Ehly said he keeps very little money in the till so that there is meager cash for any robber to take.
"Another thing I got going for me is that I have the Police Department right down the street, and officers are driving by all the time," Ehly said. "And anybody who drives by can see right inside the bay doors of this place."
He said the economy may be causing people to do desperate things.
"You never know what's going to happen," Ehly said. "This place is the same as a gas station or a liquor store. If some jerk walks in with a gun, you are going to give them the money unless you want to get shot."
In that case, however, police arrested a man and his girlfriend as suspects in the shooting. They were described as being homeless.
Ehly said some recycling centers pay in cash, while others reimburse customers with a paper receipt that can be redeemed at a grocery store.
Ehly said he keeps very little money in the till so that there is meager cash for any robber to take.
"Another thing I got going for me is that I have the Police Department right down the street, and officers are driving by all the time," Ehly said. "And anybody who drives by can see right inside the bay doors of this place."
He said the economy may be causing people to do desperate things.
"You never know what's going to happen," Ehly said. "This place is the same as a gas station or a liquor store. If some jerk walks in with a gun, you are going to give them the money unless you want to get shot."
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