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This program is about unsolved mysteries. Whenever possible, the actual family members

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and police officials have participated in recreating the events. What you are about

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to see is not a news broadcast.

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When Brian Broffle, a wealthy New York businessman, bought a farm in rural Vermont, local residents

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were instantly charmed by his easy manner and good-natured attempts to adopt country

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ways. But in 1990, an early morning raid on Broffle's farm left his friends and neighbors

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stunned. The congenial city slicker was apparently a major player in the international drug trade.

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In the summer of 1988, tensions in the Persian Gulf were at the boiling point. On July 3rd,

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Captain Will Rogers of the USS Vincennes, believing his ship was about to be attacked,

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mistakenly ordered his gunners to shoot down an Iranian airliner, leaving 290 civilians

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dead. Several months later in San Diego, a car bombing that is no accident, the target

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is the wife of the American ship's captain.

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In police radio code, it's known as 211 armed, a robbery in progress. Two masked gunmen are

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about to terrorize the customers and employees of a restaurant, clean out the cash register,

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and then escape, unmolested and unidentified.

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Since August 23rd, 1991, the same scenario has unfolded no less than 29 times in and

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around the city of the Lakewood, California. In every case, the robbers brandished handguns

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of semi-automatic weapons. And in almost every case, the target was a pizza restaurant.

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Join me for these fascinating stories. Perhaps you may be able to help solve a mystery.

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Thank you.

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Orleans County, Vermont, lies on the United States border with Canada. Its quiet countryside

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is dotted with small farming towns whose families have lived here for generations. In these

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parts, a stranger is guaranteed to cause a stir. But no one was prepared for the whirlwind

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that would follow the arrival of a man named Brian Brofil.

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In August of 1986, the wealthy New Yorker bought a 30-acre farm in West Glover. He told

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people he had made his fortune manufacturing toothbrushes and had come to the country to

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put down roots. His unassuming manner soon won the trust of his neighbors.

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He loved Vermont, and he really became friendly with a lot of the local people. He had this

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easy way about him that made people very comfortable.

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Nancy Buckley met Brian. When he called him on a puppy, she advertised in the local paper.

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He was open and friendly and was either knowledgeable in an area that you were interested in, or

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he was very curious and wanted to learn about something that you knew a lot about. And both

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of those things ingratiate him to you.

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He was an accident waiting for a place to happen. He knew nothing about country life,

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but he was willing to learn. But Brian's idea of learning was to ask you to help him do

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something and then stand and watch you do it.

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I think there's something wrong with this saddle. This doesn't feel right.

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Frank and Susan Midor, who also owned a farm in Virginia, were Brian's nearest neighbors.

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They probably knew him better than anyone in the area.

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Emmanuel Labor was not in his vocabulary. But he didn't in such a likable way, you didn't

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object to it. He was very obviously a city boy. He couldn't hide that.

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Brian Brofil was definitely a hard man to figure. He knew next to nothing about country

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life. Yet he went out and spent thousands of dollars to buy a single horse of a special

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breed, a warm blood.

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What a great big warm blood. He's wonderful.

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Brian then paid thousands more to board the horse with another neighbor, Peggy DuPont.

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There were a couple things about Brian that seemed a little strange. The first thing was

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that he paid in cash for his board. He had two horses, so he would pay me $500 in cash

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for the boarding. And my husband immediately said, oh, he's a drug dealer. And I said,

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he's not a drug dealer. You're out of your mind. He's a nice person. And besides, he

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had to go to the bank first to get the money. He told me so.

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Peggy DuPont's husband had no idea how right he was. On February 12, 1990, twenty heavily

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armed Vermont state police, DEA agents and U.S. marshals paid a visit to Brian Brofil's

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farm.

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The agents burst in on a crop of more than 2,000 marijuana plants. It was a biggest bust

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in Vermont history. At that very moment, Brofil was with the Midors at the farm in Virginia.

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At 8.30 a.m., a friend from Vermont telephoned with stunning news of the raid.

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Why would they want to know if I've seen Brian? Are you kidding?

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I'm going to do any writing today? I don't think so. I got all that work in the corral

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to finish tomorrow. I'll be a bit of it. That was weird. There was a marijuana bust in

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West Charleston. They're looking for you, Brian. What's going on?

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I don't know. I better make a phone call.

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He was calm. I better make a phone call. He came back and said, you're going to have

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to take me to the airport. I'm going to have to straighten this mess out.

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He said he was worried about his reputation and what is somebody trying to do to him.

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This can't be right. I've got to get home and straighten out my reputation. It was

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at that. I mean, I sincerely believed him.

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The Midors unwittingly drove Vermont's biggest pot dealer to the airport. Brian Brofil then

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dropped from sight. Meanwhile, authorities were just beginning to realize the scope of

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his enterprise.

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The agent's initial reaction was just one of pure awe. Nobody's ever seen such an operation

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nationwide. It was one of the most sophisticated operations that has ever been seen.

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Brofil had spared no expense. His marijuana plantation featured automated irrigation and

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lighting. A heating system sheltered the plants from Vermont's hard winters. Authorities estimated

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that the operation had been grossing as much as a quarter of a million dollars a month.

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Agent Labir sifted through Brofil's private papers, trying to pick up the fugitives' trail.

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I was looking for anything that would tell me who Brian Brofil was, or is, or will be.

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I found volumes of information. I tracked down each piece of information, and each piece

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of information led me to a dead end.

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Agent Labir expected Brofil would have a well-documented criminal past. However, FBI

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and various state records revealed only a single conviction for drunk driving. Convinced

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Brofil was wanted somewhere for something. Agent Labir contacted Interpol, the international

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law enforcement agency. He was stunned to discover that the giant marijuana operation

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was little more than a hobby. Just a small part of an illicit drug empire masterminded

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by Brian Brofil.

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What I learned is that he initially began smuggling in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

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He got involved with a group of people who were living a good lifestyle. He traveled

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to a few exotic places with these people and got addicted to their lifestyle. He wanted

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to become a playboy. The quickest way he could do that was to become a narcotics smuggler.

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Initially Brian traveled to Southeast Asia in the South Pacific, where he procured small

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amounts of narcotics. He would take these narcotics and tape them to his body and walk

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through customs. He did this in countries that execute people for drug activity. Brian

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would walk through customs without sweating a bead and making friends.

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By the time Brofil moved to Vermont, he had developed one of the world's largest drug-smuggling

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networks. After months of painstaking research, Agent LeBeer was able to penetrate Brofil's

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shadowy world and recruit an informant.

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This is what I found out. He's working on his mother load.

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His mother load?

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Yeah, his mother load. He talked about this one for a while. This is the one he's going

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to retire on. He brings the drugs in on the West Coast.

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The male's disclosures were frustratingly incomplete. Both were planned to smuggle some

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$20 million worth of heroin into the United States, perhaps along the Oregon coast. But

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Agent LeBeer could never pin down the exact place or time.

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He confirmed our speculation that Brian is a major narcotics smuggler and is continuing

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to smuggle narcotics. What we didn't learn is the specifics. We know that Brian's out

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there right now smuggling narcotics, peddling his narcotics, but we don't know exactly

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where he is.

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When all of this happened, I was in shock and I just couldn't believe that he could live

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such a double life.

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I feel sorry for Brian. I feel sorry for him because his life, his total life was a lie.

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He lived this lie so perfectly that he obviously had no life of his own. The Brian that we

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liked did not exist, so I can't certainly feel sorry for him being caught.

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On the Night Brofils story aired, our foam setter switchboards lit up with calls from

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Paso Robles of Central California. Alert viewers there recognized Brian Brofils as one of their

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neighbors. Local authorities immediately called the police to investigate Brian's death.

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The authorities immediately moved in to make an arrest, but Brofils had vanished again.

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Our understanding is that Brian watched the show. The show aired at 8 o'clock and Brian

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was gone at 8 to 15. He had left all his personal belongings behind and was just gone.

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In Paso Robles, Brofils went by the name Brian Jenkins. He found work as a handyman at local

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horse ranches and became an accepted member of the community. Brofils never once drew

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the attention of police. He was living comfortably with no fears. We weren't even close to him.

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He could have wrote a textbook on how to hide. He was that good.

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But Brian Brofils wasn't good enough. After he fled Paso Robles, viewer tips helped authorities

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track the fugitive South of Carlsbad near San Diego, where he was arrested on December

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19, 1993. Three weeks later, Brian Brofils was extradited to Vermont. If convicted on

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all charges, he faces a prison term of 20 years to life.

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Next, a car bombing in San Diego. The suspect's international terrorist seeking revenge.

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Summer 1988, the Persian Gulf. Just three months earlier, an American ship had been badly

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damaged when it ran afoul of an Iranian mine. Now the Gulf's sworn with United States naval

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vessels and aircraft. Their mission? Protect U.S. flagged oil tankers from increasingly

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hostile Iranian forces. The centerpiece of the United States naval presence in the Gulf

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was the USS Vincennes, a state of the art guided missile cruiser, fully armed with surface

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to air missiles. What happened on July the 3rd, 1988, would claim 290 lives, alter the

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face of Middle Eastern politics, and deeply affect Will Rogers, captain of the USS Vincennes.

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By chance, a Navy film crew was aboard the ship that day. They documented the hellish

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events.

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Started out in a benign fashion. We were en route to Bahrain to celebrate the ship's

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birthday. And as we had approached the southern end of the Gulf, I received a radio call

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that the USS Montgomery was having some difficulty with Iranian Revolutionary Guard small craft.

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We were directed by higher authority to develop a tactical picture and relay this information

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back to Bahrain.

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The Vincennes dispatched a reconnaissance helicopter. It was immediately attacked by at least 7

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Iranian gunboats. Captain Rogers sought and received permission to return fire.

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What ensued was a rather violent service engagement between myself, USS Montgomery, and about

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7 small high speed craft.

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Almost simultaneously, an unidentified aircraft showed up on the ship's radar screen. The

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plane appeared to be gathering speed and descending straight toward the Vincennes.

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Initially didn't pay much attention to it. It was of some interest, but not very tactically

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significant, particularly in the middle of this surface engagement we were involved in.

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The Navy commenced to issue radio warnings, asking it to divert from its course, heading

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directly at us, received no response. In the meantime, the service engagement continued.

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I was very concerned about damage to my ship, injury of my crew. When the aircraft had

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reached 20 nautical miles, I had permission to engage it from higher authority. I simply

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couldn't believe that this was happening. Elected not to engage. When the aircraft had

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reached close to about 12 nautical miles, the decision had to be made, and I chose to

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engage it with missiles.

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The crew's jubilant mood quickly turned somber. Information began to come in over the radio

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about an Iranian passenger plane which had failed to show up at its appointed destination.

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It became obvious to us that something was badly wrong. What the pieces of the puzzle

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began to add up to was this overdue airliner was the result of the missile engagement that

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we in fact had destroyed as a civilian airliner.

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President hold the ship crossing the Iranian declared war zone line.

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The men aboard the Vincennes had come face to face with the unspoken fear that haunts

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every military man. They were responsible for the death of innocent civilians. 290 passengers

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aboard a commercial Iranian Airlines flight were dead. Their baggage and personal effects

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creating an eerie wake in the blue waters of the Gulf.

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Most people accepted the downing of Iranian Air Flight 655 as a tragic error. The flight

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was not running at a scheduled time. It had not responded to repeated requests to identify

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itself. And the Vincennes radar screen could not differentiate between the large passenger

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plane and smaller Iranian fighter jets. Inside Iran itself however, response to the incident

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was quite different. One high ranking Iranian official even stated that his country would

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not forgive and claimed the right to revenge.

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In San Diego, California, Captain Rogers wife Sharon, a fourth grade school teacher, tried

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to cope with the news. A few weeks later she would have chilling reason to take the Iranian

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rhetoric seriously.

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It was about a month after July 3rd. It was one o'clock in the morning the phone rang.

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There was a man on the other end of the phone with a mid-eastern accent. He wanted to know

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if this was the home of Captain Rogers. And then he said, are you the wife of the murderer?

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And at that time I hung up.

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My worst nightmare was coming true. I had feared that there was someone out to make a

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retribution for what had happened in the Gulf. At this point, with someone calling me, I

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thought possibly they know where our home is, they know where I live. And possibly someone's

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in the city. It didn't sound like a long distance telephone call to me. Needless to say, I didn't

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sleep the rest of the night.

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The Naval Investigative Service was called in to secure the Rogers home. Agents checked

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the mail and monitored incoming phone calls. They recommended that Sharon Rogers always

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keep her car securely locked in the garage when she was at home.

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Ten weeks went by. No further phone threats were received and on October 24th, 1988, Sharon

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Rogers was at the dock to welcome the USS Vincennes and her husband home.

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At the period of relative calm, the Rogers continued to observe safety precautions and

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to keep both cars garaged.

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Then on March 9th, 1989, their stringent attitude momentarily relaxed.

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Will and I had a commitment at the Navy base for a Navy meeting. And we got back home around

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9.30, we were both exhausted. In it, I had parked my van on the driveway.

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To make a long story short, we were very tired. We decided not to put the cars in the garage.

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It was the first night since July 3rd that we had not parked the cars in the garage.

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And the only night, the only time.

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At 7 o'clock the next morning, Captain Rogers, as was his custom, left the house and drove

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his wife's van to a local market to buy breakfast pastries.

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Will came back to the house. We exchanged a few words. It was time for me to go to work.

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Got into the van, pulled out of the driveway, took my normal route to school. Everything

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seemed fine. Pulled up at a red light at La Jolla Village Drive in Genesee. And it was

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then that I heard the explosion.

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I knew that if I'd ever do anything right, I'd better do this one right because I realized

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I didn't have many seconds left before I could get out of that van a lot.

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Sharon Rogers threw open the driver's side door, but forgot that she had her seatbelt

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on. As she struggled to free herself, a few ever precious seconds slipped away.

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I jumped from the cab of the van. Then I ran to the curb where there was a construction

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worker. He took me and placed me in the cab of his truck, put his jacket around me, and

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asked if there was anyone I wanted to call. About that time a police woman approached

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me. I told her who I was, that I was the wife of the captain of the Vincennes. She immediately

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called a halt to everything and told everyone to move away, get away. She then began calling

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in the Naval Investigative Service, the FBI, everyone else.

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At the time I simply couldn't grasp it, could not fathom that in fact the van had been bombed.

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I was convinced that the catalytic converter had exploded. But then very shortly I noticed

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laying in the street a link to pipe about like this, which is split from end to end,

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and that was no catalytic converter. An FBI investigation revealed that indeed a large

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pipe bomb had been strapped to the underbelly of the van.

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Sharon Rogers was extremely lucky. The blast from the bomb went up just behind her seat

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through the roof of the van and out to the right side of the van. The bomb was definitely

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designed to kill someone and was not a prank. It was placed underneath the vehicle located

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probably just behind where the driver's seat was.

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The FBI learned that less than two months before the bombing incident, a stranger had

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been asking questions on the Rogers Street.

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Excuse me. Yes.

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Would you happen to know which house the captain lives?

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Captain, I'm sorry, I don't think I can help you with that.

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I was told that a Middle Eastern family lives in this neighborhood. Would you know which

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house that might be?

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Well, you might try the grey house on the right, the third house up. I believe there's

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a Middle Eastern family that lives there.

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Thank you very much.

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You bet.

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The FBI produced this drawing of the man based on the description given by the Rogers neighbors.

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The man was thin, five feet nine and a half inches tall with dark eyes and hair and receding

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hairline. He had a pronounced Middle Eastern accent.

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A second man waited for him in the passenger seat of a BMW with California license plates.

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The BMW was an unusual color known as Bronze Bay. Both men appeared to be in their thirties.

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You should be stressed that neither man is ordered for any crime, only for questioning.

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We would like to identify the two individuals who spoke to the neighbors as that's one piece

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of our puzzle that we need to solve. And in addition to that, we would like anybody that

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has any information at all relative to the bombing or to the individuals involved in

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it to give us a call.

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I think we both fervently hope that it results in the arrest and conviction and ultimate

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imprisonment of the people responsible for the attempt on Sharon's life. The FBI and

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the NIS have worked very hard to bring this case to a conclusion and we certainly hope

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that somebody out there sees something, knows something, passes that information.

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This was a case of attempted murder. It was a terrorist act and we need to apprehend someone.

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They need to be convicted as Will said. They need to be imprisoned and we have to send

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a very strong message to terrorism that you're just not going to win here in the United States.

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When we return, the inspiring story of a young man's second chance at life and his search

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for the mystery woman who saved him.

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Rock and roll musician John Lennon once said, life is what happens when you're making other

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plans. You're about to meet a vibrant inspiration in a young man named Philip Macri. Six years

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ago, Philip was a high school basketball star and a hot college prospect whose life was turned

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upside down in a split second. It happened on August 28th, 1987 during a weekend vacation

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in Virginia Beach, Virginia that was suddenly and terribly wrong.

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We went to the beach a day before the softball tournament and just went down there to try

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to get a nice tan and check out the babes on the beach. I dove into the water with my

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hands out forward breaking the wave. That was the last movement I had because when

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I dove into the wave, I broke my neck instantly and couldn't feel anything. I opened up my

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eyes on the water and it was real dark and black and all I heard was the ocean going.

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I didn't know why I wasn't moving. In my mind, I felt like I was moving my arms and swimming

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but I wasn't getting nowhere and I just kept remembering that. I was going to go way out

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into the ocean. I was going to be by sharks. My life was going to be over. My basketball

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career was going to be over because that's all I love to do is play basketball.

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Just the previous season, Philip Macri had led his Newcastle, Pennsylvania high school

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team into the state playoffs. He seemed destined to win a college basketball scholarship. Philip's

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most glorious moment had come during a matchup with his team's arch rival. With a score tied

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and only seconds remaining in the game, Philip stole the ball.

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Eight months later, Philip found himself unable to move his arms and legs, buffeted by waves,

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but knowing whether he would live or die. I do remember when I was under water I was

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saying help, somebody help me, help, I was screaming. No one knows if Philip's calls

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for help are actually heard, but miraculously they were answered by a woman whose identity

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remains a mystery to this day. I was looking out into the water and I saw

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some lady pulling Philip out of the water, but the only reason I knew it was him was

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from his swimming trunks that he had been wearing. And when I saw the swimming trunks

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I just ran. What happened here? I don't know, I think

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it was body service. Philip, Philip, step back. Can you move your toes? Move something.

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And I heard my sister saying Philip, Philip, move something, move your arms, move your

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legs. I was gasping for air and I responded by saying I can't, I can't move anything.

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And that was it. Can you move your feet? Can you move your fingers?

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What's wrong with him? With everyone's attention on Philip, the

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quiet rescuer was all but forgotten. She disappeared before anyone could ask her name.

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I've often thought about the woman that saved Philip. Now I regret that I didn't think

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her at that time, but my mind and my thoughts were just all for Philip.

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I got the telephone call from Virginia Beach. The doctor was on the phone. He says to me,

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Mrs. Macri, and I says, yes. He says I need your verbal consent to do something on Philip.

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And I says, you have it. What do you do? Break an arm or a leg? He says, no ma'am, he's paralyzed.

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Broke his neck.

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When I saw my parents for the first time, it was so hard. It was like the hardest thing.

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Seeing them, you know, hovering over me crying and telling me that I'd never walk again.

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It was devastating all around. I mean, maybe men aren't supposed to cry, but I cried more.

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I never cried so much in all my life as I did then.

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For three days, doctors pumped sand from Philip's stomach. For two weeks, he was wrapped in

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ice blankets to counter raging fevers, resulting from multiple infections. Finally, Philip's

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condition improved enough for doctors to surgically stabilize as crushed vertebra, but the damage

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had been done. More than five years have passed since a mysterious stranger gave Philip a

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second shot at life. In that time, Philip has had to redefine his aspirations, but he pursues

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him with the same determination he once brought to the basketball court.

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When I was in the hospital in Virginia, I had like three or four goals. The first goal

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was to get off the respirator. My second goal was to get in a wheelchair and don't be so

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depressed and knowing that, you know, it's all right to be in a wheelchair. And my last

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goal was to go to college and get a degree and get a job.

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Mrs. Philip McCree coming from the campus of Westminster College, and here are today's

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sports headlines. The Chicago Bears of Cancun, Mike Dicker.

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Philip is majoring in telecommunications at Westminster College near his home in Pennsylvania.

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In the fall, he will return to the sport he loves, this time as a play-by-play announcer

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for local high school basketball games. Philip McCree has made the most of his gift of life,

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but he still hopes to accomplish one very important goal. He would like to personally

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thank the woman who saved him.

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It's very important to find this lady who pulled me out of the water because, again, I wouldn't

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be able to fulfill my goals of becoming a sports broadcaster. I wouldn't be able to

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be here with my family today. I wouldn't be able to do the things that I always wanted

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to do in life if she wanted to save my life.

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On the night of our broadcast, Philip was overjoyed to learn that he would finally get

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his chance to say thank you. Forty-three-year-old Linda Potts called our telecenter and identified

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herself as the unknown rescuer.

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On March 27, 1993, Philip and Linda met face-to-face for the first time since Philip nearly drowned

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at Virginia Beach.

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When she pulled out in the car today when I first met her, it just gave me tingling all

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through my body. It made me feel real good to know that I could thank her for saving

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my life.

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I felt like I found a member of my family, a lost member of my family that I hadn't seen

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in five years.

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That evening, Philip's parents hosted a dinner for family and friends in honor of the woman

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who saved their son's life.

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I hope to keep a close relationship with me and Mrs. Potts. I found out she's a very

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good friend.

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I hope to keep a close relationship with me and Mrs. Potts. I found out she's had some

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medical problems in her life and if there's anything I could do to help her out with her

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problems, I love to help her out with it.

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Philip, Macri and Linda Potts, two strangers joined by a twist of fate.

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Philip and I will remain friends for a long, long time. If there's anything I can ever

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do for Philip, all he has to do is pick up the phone and dial my number. I'll be there

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for him.

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Recently, we brought you the story of Martha Doe Roberts, who was kidnapped from her home

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in Eads, Tennessee, on the morning of August 7, 1992.

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Since our broadcast, several strange developments have surfaced in this case. Friends and relatives

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of Mrs. Roberts have received more than a dozen telephone calls from a man who claims

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to be her kidnapper. He has demanded a ransom of $185,000 and says that Doe Roberts is still

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alive.

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Melissa Lancaster received a call from the alleged kidnapper last December.

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He said he had Doe and that she was alive and I said, well, let me speak to her. He said,

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no, no, you ask questions. You ask three questions. He turned around after each one and asked someone

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to answer it and turned around and gave me the correct answer.

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Hello?

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This is an audio tape of a ransom call made on December 14, 1992. The caller always uses

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a fake, exaggerated Asian accent.

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You'll listen to the second part of the ritual. Eat these all. You want to stop this? What?

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Voice tests indicate that the caller is a middle-aged white male. In addition, several

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of his calls have cast suspicion on Doe Roberts' husband.

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In these phone calls, the caller was implicating Mr. Roberts as being responsible for the disappearance

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of his wife. The caller stated that Mr. Roberts had hired them to kidnap Doe and had not paid

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them the money that he owed them.

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Any implications that I was involved in the kidnapping of my wife is totally untrue. And

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I resent it. I love my wife. We were like one. We'd been together for 44 years and we

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was planning on another 44 years. It would be real nice if I could get my wife back.

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If the kidnapper were to see this and my wife is still alive, you let her go and I'll send

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you $185,000 anywhere you want it. I'll do it secretly. If she's not alive and she

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did, you let me know where she's buried and I'll give you $50,000 anywhere you want.

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On a previous broadcast, we presented the unsettling story of Athol Nation, a new

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nurse in San Antonio, Texas. During the 1950s and 60s, Nation allegedly operated a secret

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but lucrative enterprise in which he befriended young unwed mothers and then sold their babies

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for a profit.

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Our segment profiled the case of Donat Barker Lucier, who was adopted in 1966 by a childless

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couple in San Antonio. As a last desperate attempt, they had approached Athol Nation

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after years of trying to adopt through state agencies.

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There were bassinets and there were children. I think there were two twin boys and myself.

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My parents didn't, because they didn't expect that things would happen so quickly, they

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just thought they were going to go to see the baby but at that point Mrs. Nations told

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my parents that they could go ahead and take me home that night.

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When Donat turned 18, she began to search for her natural parents. She found that her

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mother's name was Gloria Cantu, the adoption papers had been notarized by Athol Nation.

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When Donat met with Nations, she was coldly informed that she should abandon her search

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because her mother had not wanted her in the first place.

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Your mother was a tramp. She didn't want you. She went there to have an abortion but it

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was just too late to have one.

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I don't understand what's happening. I told you you shouldn't have been messing around

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with something like this, you should have left well enough alone.

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Or how she could say that it hurt.

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On the night of our broadcast, several viewers called our telecenter on behalf of Donat's

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birth mother, Gloria Cantu Martinez of San Antonio, Texas. A short time later, Donat

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spoke to her mother for the very first time and learned that Gloria had never intended

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to give her up but had been tricked into signing the adoption papers. Donat was overjoyed

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to discover that Gloria wanted to see her as soon as possible.

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On November 9, 1992, Gloria flew to Washington, D.C. for a tearful reunion with Donat. For

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mother and daughter, it was an emotional end to 26 years of painful separation.

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When I was waiting for her to come out from the plane, I don't know, a million things

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were going through my mind. Just relief that it was over, that I was finally where I wanted

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to be after a long time of looking.

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I just couldn't believe it. That it was finally going to happen. What I always wanted. I've always wanted to find her and wonder what she was like.

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If she was married and she had any children.

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The reunion was made even more special when Gloria met her four grandchildren for the first time.

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Donat's dream of having her entire family together had finally come true.

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I don't know what she was like.

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In the past six months, 29 restaurants in the Vallejo, California area have been robbed at gunpoint.

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Authorities believe that the robberies are the work of a marauding street gang known to operate in northern California.

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To date, no innocent bystanders have been seriously injured, but police fear that if the holdups continue, violence is inevitable.

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The assault style robberies typically occur between 9 and 11 p.m. near closing time when the restaurant is virtually empty and the cash register is full.

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Move! Get on the floor! Get on the floor!

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Police believe that in all, there may be as many as six to eight pizza bandits who usually operate in rotating teams of two.

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Just stand up right there!

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Nobody moves, nobody freaks! Shut up!

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When the two robbers came in, they were just ordering us around, telling us to open things up.

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So if things weren't fast enough, they'd curse and tell us to do it quicker.

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So we just gave them the stuff and hoped they'd hurry up and leave.

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From the time they came in to the time they left, it probably took about two minutes.

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Alright man, I got it! Come on, let's go man!

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It was frightening, the fact that they have guns right there, they could just kill you if they wanted to.

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Some of the language they've used during the commission of these has been very specific.

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They've used terms such as don't make this a 187, which in California is the penal code section for murder.

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The pattern was fairly consistent throughout in that it involved generally two black males that would enter an establishment.

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They always wore masks, they're generally of the knit cotton ski mask type.

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Weapons have varied from handguns, revolvers, semi-automatics to more recently, oozy type weapons.

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They've gone so far as to strike people on the side of the head with the handguns, kick them when they're down.

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Whether or not they're going to get more aggressive, we always fear that.

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We don't want to encourage giving them any opportunity to escalate that.

419
00:45:11,000 --> 00:45:14,000
We don't want to see anyone acting as a hero or taking them on.

420
00:45:14,000 --> 00:45:16,000
I got it man, come on, let's go!

421
00:45:16,000 --> 00:45:23,000
The robbers seem familiar with the layout of each individual target and go about their business with brisk cold efficiency.

422
00:45:23,000 --> 00:45:30,000
Within minutes the thieves have vanished, leaving police with almost no clues, only a handful of terrified victims.

423
00:45:32,000 --> 00:45:38,000
On January 3rd, 1992, authorities finally got a break in the pizza bandit case.

424
00:45:38,000 --> 00:45:45,000
A reputed member of the Vallejo gang was arrested moments after the robbery of a restaurant in nearby Fremont, California.

425
00:45:45,000 --> 00:45:51,000
The FBI has now joined in the investigation because a gang has also been linked to several bank robberies in the area.

426
00:45:51,000 --> 00:45:57,000
Two suspected gang members have been charged in connection with one of the bank holdups and are now in custody.

427
00:45:59,000 --> 00:46:02,000
Authorities believe there are at least five bandits still at large.

428
00:46:02,000 --> 00:46:05,000
All are thought to be black males in their twenties.

429
00:46:05,000 --> 00:46:08,000
All should be considered armed and dangerous.

430
00:46:21,000 --> 00:46:24,000
The end

431
00:46:32,000 --> 00:46:37,000
Join me next time. Perhaps you may be able to help solve a mystery.