Dennis RomeroResidents of tony Newport Beach are wondering if they're being punk'd.
Several valuable bikes have been stolen from the Villa Balboa condo complex, and security videos stills of one of the suspects makes him out to look a little like Ashton Kutcher. Now we know the Two and a Half Men stand-in isn't making half the cash pulled down by Charlie Sheen. But stealing bikes is a little desperate, innit?
The other suspect in this duo of cycle aficionados looks like none other than …
… Col. Sanders of Kentucky Fried Chicken fame.
While the FBI is legendary for giving silly, look-alike nicknames to bank robbers, Newport Beach police spokeswoman Kathy Lowe told the Weekly that it was the residents who took to calling these two Ashton and Col. Sanders.
“The residents have actually named them the Col. Sanders and Ashton Kutcher bandits,” Lowe said.
Ashton and Demi.
And she doesn't think the suspects are wearing disguises. They naturally look like Aston and the colonel — one is youngish and lanky, the other has a goatee and uses a cane to walk.
Cops say the thirtysomething pair, seen in a 1990s Ford Explorer, possibly with a “Support Our Troops” ribbon sticker on the back, could be responsible for as many as a dozen bike thefts in the area since February.
Anyone with info on this fake Ashton and his accomplice was asked to call Det. Josh Comte at 949-644-3799.
[@dennisjromero/djromero@laweekly.com]
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