Rite Aid

Fire officials blame arson for a Sunday morning fire at a Costa Mesa drug store. Costa Mesa Fire Department officials say someone lit papers ablaze at the Rite Aid at 3029 Harbor Blvd. Employees at the open drug store had already evacuated the store when fire personnel arrived at 10 a.m., said Costa Mesa Fire Department Battalion Chief Keith Fujimoto. The store's sprinkler system had activated, sending about 500 gallons of water into the store, Fujimoto said.

Police were looking Monday for a man who attempted to rob the Rite Aid on Pacific Coast Highway in Corona del Mar this weekend. Just after 7:30 p.m. Sunday, the robber threatened a clerk with a semiautomatic handgun, police said. When the clerk refused to give him money from the register, the robber left, Sgt. Bill Hartford said. The robber was described as white, about 55 years old, about 5-foot-5 inches tall, weighing 280 pounds. He had a full gray beard and green eyes. He was wearing a green jacket, a white button-up shirt and tan pants, Hartford said.

A takeover-style robbery inside a Costa Mesa pharmacy resulted in one employee locked in a large cooler while two men cleaned out the store’s registers and safe, police said. There were no customers shopping at 10 p.m. Sunday at the Rite Aid in the 2300 block of Harbor Boulevard when two men entered, one with a handgun, police said. The men told a female employee to close and lock the front entrance and then locked the male co-worker in the cooler where beverages are stored, Lt. Clay Epperson said.

An Orange County Superior Court judge this week ordered the drugstore chain Rite Aid Corp. to pay legal fees to an Irvine-based law firm in a contract dispute between the company and a land developer over a planned shopping center in Newport Beach. Judge David McEachen ordered Rite Aid to pay $944,162 in legal fees to the developer’s law firm, Burkhalter Kessler Goodman & George, this week. The suit involved a contract dispute over the planned Bel Maré shopping center in Newport Beach.

As Costa Mesa police report a third robbery of the painkiller Oxycontin from city drugstores this month, authorities said Monday they may be chasing a man on a spree. A slim, medium-height man wearing a dark cap walked into the Rite-Aid drugstore at 2300 Harbor Blvd. at 4:45 p.m. Sunday. He handed the pharmacy clerk a threatening note, showed him a handgun tucked into his waistband and received "a substantial amount" of the drug, according to Costa Mesa Police Sgt. Bob Ciszek. The suspect drove off in a black Chevy Suburban with loud exhaust, he said.

The Newport Beach City Council on Tuesday night voted to pay $3.5 million for the site of the historical Balboa Village Market to make way for more parking in an aging shopping district. “I view this as a very strategic action on the part of the city to immediately provide additional parking for the Balboa Village area,” said Councilman Mike Henn, who negotiated the deal. The council has made revitalizing the Balboa Village area a top priority this year. Businesses there have struggled in recent years, in part because of a lack of parking in the area.

COSTA MESA Gisler Avenue: A customer at Motel 6 in the 1400 block awoke from a brief nap to find his $320 briefcase and cellular phone missing at 8 p.m. Monday. Harbor Boulevard: An employee at Rite Aid in the 3000 block watched as a teenage boy with spiked hair rode off on her $100 bike at 11:50 a.m. Aug. 9. Superior Avenue: A female guest at the Ramada Inn in the 1600 block Aug. 9 returned to her room at noon to discover her wedding ring and pair of gold hoop earrings were missing from the night stand.

For a long time, they had been an obscure item in drugstores around Newport-Mesa, tucked between other boxes on the shelf or sometimes not displayed at all. Then the wildfires engulfed Southern California last week and, overnight, face masks turned into one of the most demanded items around. Newport-Mesa’s pharmacies underwent a busy few days after fires flared up around the region Sunday. None of the blazes came close to either city, but the heavy soot in the air led many people to the counters at Rite Aid, Longs and other providers around town.

The Newport Beach City Council on Tuesday night voted to pay $3.5 million for the site of the historical Balboa Village Market to make way for more parking in an aging shopping district. “I view this as a very strategic action on the part of the city to immediately provide additional parking for the Balboa Village area,” said Councilman Mike Henn, who negotiated the deal. The council has made revitalizing the Balboa Village area a top priority this year. Businesses there have struggled in recent years, in part because of a lack of parking in the area.

A drug store manager’s uncanny ability to be in the wrong place at the wrong time when crimes occur has finally caught up to her, Orange County Sheriff’s officials are saying. Authorities are claiming Cynthia Johanna Ongamsing-Jenkins, 43, wasn’t exactly the victim of a take-over robbery at a Costa Mesa Rite Aid in 2007, or of a stick-up last month in Dana Point where robbers made off with $20,000. No, said Sheriffs department spokesman Jim Amormino, she, in fact, helped plan them.

An Orange County Superior Court judge this week ordered the drugstore chain Rite Aid Corp. to pay legal fees to an Irvine-based law firm in a contract dispute between the company and a land developer over a planned shopping center in Newport Beach. Judge David McEachen ordered Rite Aid to pay $944,162 in legal fees to the developer’s law firm, Burkhalter Kessler Goodman & George, this week. The suit involved a contract dispute over the planned Bel Maré shopping center in Newport Beach.

Police are looking for two men they said boldly robbed a Rite Aid pharmacy in Costa Mesa on Monday in the afternoon. About 12:16 p.m. Monday a man walked into the Rite Aid pharmacy, 3209 Harbor Boulevard, and approached a cashier, claiming he had a gun and demanded the money out of the register, Lt. Mark Manley said. No one actually saw a gun, he added. He took an undetermined amount of money in the stickup, police said. Police described the robber as balding, white, 6 feet tall with a thin build and no facial hair in his 40s or 50s. He was wearing a black leather jacket and brown, khaki pants.

Two Newport-Mesa Rite Aid stores will offer free health services Thursday through Saturday at their in-store Lindora Health Clinics. The clinics, staffed by physicians and registered nurses, will offer free body-fat analysis, blood pressure screenings and nutritional information along with many other services. Free samples of protein shakes and healthy snack foods and drinks will also be offered. Participating Rite Aids are located in Costa Mesa on the corner of 17th Street and Orange Avenue, and in Newport Beach at the corner of San Miguel Drive and San Joaquin Hills Road.

Hold the doughnuts. For the next 10 weeks, it’ll be coffee and protein bars for Santa Ana police officer Jessica Quintana. She’ll be stepping on a scale five days a week at the Lindora Weight Loss Clinic, located on Harbor Boulevard in Costa Mesa. Quintana is one of 20 officers participating in a “Battle of the Badges” weight-loss contest between the Orange County Sheriff’s Department and the Santa Ana Police Department sponsored by Lindora.

A takeover-style robbery inside a Costa Mesa pharmacy resulted in one employee locked in a large cooler while two men cleaned out the store’s registers and safe, police said. There were no customers shopping at 10 p.m. Sunday at the Rite Aid in the 2300 block of Harbor Boulevard when two men entered, one with a handgun, police said. The men told a female employee to close and lock the front entrance and then locked the male co-worker in the cooler where beverages are stored, Lt. Clay Epperson said.

For a long time, they had been an obscure item in drugstores around Newport-Mesa, tucked between other boxes on the shelf or sometimes not displayed at all. Then the wildfires engulfed Southern California last week and, overnight, face masks turned into one of the most demanded items around. Newport-Mesa’s pharmacies underwent a busy few days after fires flared up around the region Sunday. None of the blazes came close to either city, but the heavy soot in the air led many people to the counters at Rite Aid, Longs and other providers around town.