Downey man sentenced to 10 years in prison for robbing GameStop stores in LA, Orange counties by gunpoint

A 28-year-old Downey man was sentenced Monday to 10 years in federal prison for armed robberies at four GameStop stores in Los Angeles and Orange counties in 2018, officials said.

Frederick Lopez Jr. robbed GameStop stores in Lynwood, Rowland Heights, West Covina and Brea, which resulted in the theft of more than $132,000, the Department of Justice said. Lopez committed the robberies – from August to October 2018 – by entering the stores at night and pulling a handgun to threaten store employees, officials said.

Lopez pleaded guilty in August to one count of interference with commerce by robbery and one count of brandishing a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence.

A small portion of the theft was cash, with $131,000 stolen merchandise such as game consoles and video games that officials said Lopez ordered the employees to load into store bags. At the West Covina robbery, Lopez and a co-conspirator ordered a store clerk to help carry stolen items into a stolen minivan, officials said, after destroying the store’s phone and employee cell phones.

“The serious nature of (Lopez’s) offenses can hardly be overstated,” prosecutors wrote in the sentencing memorandum. “Armed robberies such as these, where firearms are brandished at victims, also leave lasting substantial stress and trauma that victims remember for years, some for their entire lives.”