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Gabriel Falcon
AC360° Writer

A California couple took their young children along on an early morning armed robbery spree that ended after a high speed chase, police said today. The suspects allegedly staged three Sunday hold-ups within minutes of one another while their 5-year-old and 1-year-old daughters were in the getaway car.

“You can’t make this stuff up,” Detective Andrew Purdy of the Los Angeles Police said. “You just really can’t.”

William Farag and Nadia Redoble, both 28, have been charged with three counts of robbery. Detective Purdy said the suspects, who reside in Van Nuys, could face additional charges for two robberies that occurred last week. Investigators will also ask the district attorney to consider charging them with child endangering and felony evading.

Detectives allege the couple began their November 30 crime wave at a Rite Aid pharmacy in the Sherman Oaks neighborhood of Los Angeles. According to police the suspects tried to hold up the business at 2:45 a.m. At 3:00 a.m., they allegedly attempted to rob a CVS pharmacy in Encino. Moments later, they are accused of targeting an IHOP restaurant, also in Encino.

“The wife would stay in the car with the two kids and the husband went into the business armed with a revolver and wearing a mask and demanding money,” Purdy told CNN. In a media release, the LAPD allege Farag pointed a handgun at two co-workers. Purdy said Farag obtained about $500 in cash.

An employee snuck out of the restaurant from a back door and immediately alerted two California Highway Patrol officers who were about to enter the restaurant, authorities said. According to the police, Farag jumped into a Nissan Maxima with his wife in the driver’s seat and their two children in the back.

Purdy said the suspects led the officers on a brief but dangerous chase in excess of 100 miles per hour. It ended when a patrol car executed a PIT maneuver that brought the car to a stop. Officers who approached the vehicle had no idea the children were inside until that point, Purdy told CNN.

He also said the couple’s oldest daughter recently turned 5 and they used some of the loot to celebrate the occasion.

“They used some of the proceeds to have a big birthday for her,” Purdy said.

Farag and Redoble are being held on $150,000 bail. Their children, who were not injured, are in protective custody.

For more crime coverage go to cnn.com/crime.