Not the best idea he ever had

Talk about a tumble from the top – it’s looking like Bakersfield native, Josh Kobdish wrote the book on it. Kobdish was arrested recently after a string of very strange robberies. Kobdish first made headlines in town back in the mid 90’s for his athletic prowess. He graduated from North, went straight to Fresno State with a full football scholarship and even signed a contract with the 49ers. (Evidently they didn’t pay him enough.)

According to the paper, the first robbery took place last Friday morning at the Supreme Bean drive thru. He rolled up, ordered a cappuccino and then said, ‘Hey, as long as you got the drawer open, why don’t you go ahead and give me all the cash.’ (You gotta hand it to him, if you’re gonna rob a business, why not do it in the drive thru? Ya got the getaway car right there and everything.)

Apparently Kobdish was pleased with his new found way of acquiring cash, cuz he tried to rob another drive thru coffee stand later that day. The person working the booth, was less than impressed with Kobdish, and refused to give him the money. Can’t you just picture it?

“Give me the money!”

“No!”

“GIMME THE MONEY!”

“NO!!”

“Ah… come on! Can’t you just give me a little money?”

“Beat it loser.”

Kobdish’s robbing rampage continued through the weekend and included Akira’s Japanese restaurant, and a Del Taco (drive thru, of course.)

While reading all about this in the paper today, I couldn’t help but remember the time I was robbed. I was in high school, I think it was my junior year, and I went to Manning’s Yogurt on Ming Ave to visit my friend who worked there. We had plans to go out and party that night (a.k.a. drive around aimlessly looking for something to do) so I showed up a little before closing time to enjoy some yogurt and keep my friend company.

I was leaning on the counter talking to her when a curly haired dude walked in. I remember he seemed to be acting a little strange because he said he wanted a small yogurt, but with his hands he indicated that he wanted a large. My friend and I just looked at each other and continued chatting while she fetched his treat. After handing the yogurt to the man and punching the price into the cash register she told him how much he owed her, at which point the man put the yogurt down said, “Well since you’ve already got it open, why you don’t go ahead and give me all the money?” To which we both replied, “Huh??”

The man explained again that he was robbing us and instructed my friend to give him all the money. We just froze. Then he told us that he had a friend standing outside with a sawed off shot gun pointed right at us. Still skeptical, I turned around to look for the other guy, asking, “Where? Where is he?” That was when he grabbed me and told me if I moved again I was going to be shot. Then he told my friend if she didn’t give him all the money that “You’re friend is gonna die.” That was about the time my friend turned purple and started handing over all the cash.

If I remember correctly, ours was the first in a string of robberies that went on for several months. All the places he robbed were small; yielding no more than a couple hundred bucks. Eventually he was caught and we were called to testify at the trial. That was weird. The man had cut his hair, and shaved, and had on a nice suit. He didn’t look much like the guy who had robbed us, but it was hard to say for sure. Luckily, some of the other victims were better witnesses than I was. The dude was found guilty and locked up for I don’t know how long.

Too bad Kobdish didn’t hear this story BEFORE he tried his hand at crime.