A man and woman held up a Newport Beach gas station at gunpoint early Tuesday, according to police.
Around midnight, an employee working in the Chevron station at Bristol Street and Irvine Avenue let the pair inside to shop in the station's convenience mart.
After a certain time at night, the store's doors have to be manually buzzed open for customers, police said.
After letting in the shoppers, "[the cashier is] going about her business behind the counter; she looks up and one of the suspects is standing right in front of her," Newport Beach police spokeswoman Jennifer Manzella said.