SIMI VALLEY : Robbers With Knife Steal Athletic Shoes

Police are looking for two men--one with a size 12 shoe and the other a size 8 1/2--who held up a Simi Valley shoe store at knifepoint Wednesday before fleeing in the stolen footwear.

The suspects left behind their old shoes.

The incident occurred at 10:20 a.m., when two men who appeared to be about 20 years old entered the Action Feet shop in Sycamore Plaza on Cochran Street, police said.

Store manager Fariba Azari said she recognized the men as the same pair who had visited the shop several days before to look at expensive basketball shoes with built-in air pumps.

On their first visit, the men had first offered to pay a deposit for the high-tech shoes, which ranged in price between $130 and $150.

“They said they had to wait until payday before they could afford to buy the shoes,” Azari said.

When they returned Wednesday, the men, dressed in shorts and T-shirts, politely asked to try on the pricey sneakers, Azari said.

Then, one pulled a knife and threatened her, ordering her to stand aside, she said. The pair ran from the store in the stolen shoes.

“They didn’t appear to be the gang type or professional thieves,” Azari said.

Police confiscated the suspects’ old shoes and the boxes the stolen sneakers were in and dusted them for fingerprints, said Simi Valley Police Officer Bill Lappin. A number of prints were found, but Lappin said it was too soon to tell whether any of the prints belonged to the suspects.

Lappin said he was puzzled why the men would risk state prison over a pair of tennis shoes. Using a weapon during a robbery constitutes a felony, he said.

Besides, he said, the shoes the men left behind “still had a good six months to a year left on them.”