Armed robbers target gym users

LYNNWOOD, Wash. — A routine workout landed some people in the middle of an armed robbery.

A teenage Lynnwood couple is accused of targeting victims at local gyms.

"In my head I was like, 'I thought Lynnwood was pretty safe.' This doesn't usually happen," said 17-year-old Garo Roy.

Roy and two friends had finished working out at 24 Hour Fitness in Lynnwood and walked out to their car. That's when a stranger pointed a gun at Roy's chest.

He saw my friend had his phone out and he pulled out the gun and he's like, 'Give me your phone' and we were standing there like 'Is this really happening?'" said Roy.

Lynnwood police say 19-year-old Jeret Hester and his girlfriend, Breana Gomez, also pointed a gun at a woman and stole her phone outside a YWCA complex. The suspects also showed up on surveillance video from Edmonds Community College walking out of a locker room after someone cut the locks on two lockers and stole the wallets inside.

Officers said they received an anonymous tip about the couple's crime spree that helped tie all of the police reports together. Hester also showed up on surveillance video at a Lynnwood gas station using one of the credit cards allegedly stolen from ECC.

"When he came up to us, he looked like he just came from the gym. He had sports gear on," said Roy.

Police say Gomez confessed to one of the robberies. Officers searched the couple's car and found a loaded BB gun shaped like a semiautomatic pistol.

"In my head I was like, 'He could fire, he could not, but my phone's not worth like one of us,'" said Roy.

KIRO